THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 
AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 


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ANDREW  MELROSE,  LTD., 
3  York  Street,  Co  vent  Garden,  London,  W.C.2 


The  German  School  as 
a  War  Nursery 

FROM  THE  FRENCH 
Pedagogic  de  Guerre  Allemande 

By 

V.  H.  FRIEDEL 


With  an  Introduction  by 

M.  E.  SADLER.  M.A. 

C.B.,  LL.D.,  Litt.D. 


NEW  YORK 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1918 


This  translation  is  by 
MAJOR  SELWYN  G.  SIMPSON,  D.Lirr. 


I  desire  to  express  my  sincere  thanks  to 
Dr.  Sadler  for  his  inspiring  Introduction, 
and  to  Dr.  Selwyn  G.  Simpson  for  under- 
taking the  translation  of  my  work. 

V.  H.  F. 
PARIS, 
April,  1918. 


INTRODUCTION     TO     ENGLISH 
TRANSLATION 

BY  DR.  M.  E.  SADLER 


WHAT  would  one  not  give,  in  these  early 
months  of  the  fourth  year  of  the  war,  for 
the  power  to  go  to  Germany  and,  with  full  know- 
ledge of  the  language  and  without  one's  identity 
being  known  or  questioned,  to  talk  freely  with  men 
and  women  of  all  ranks  and  opinions  ?  In  some 
degree,  Monsieur  Friedel's  book  gives  one  this 
opportunity.  It  lifts  the  veil  and  shows  us  some 
of  the  currents  of  German  educational  thought  in 
war-time. 

What  part  can  skilfully  organized  public  educa- 
tion play  in  furthering  the  welfare  and  increasing 
the  might  of  a  modern  State  ?  This  is  a  subject 
upon  which  the  Germans  have  arrived  at  more 
formulated  judgments  than  have  the  English.  I  am 
far  from  thinking  that  these  German  judgments  are 
wholly  sound.  On  the  contrary,  they  seem  to  me 
defective  in  sympathy  with  the  needs  of  individual 
freedom  ;  conventional  in  their  acceptance  of  cer- 
tain established  canons  of  educational  orthodoxy  ; 
—  7  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

and  erroneous  in  some  of  their  practical  applications 
of  the  theory  of  general  culture.  But  German 
educational  opinion,  whatever  its  fallacies  and 
defects,  is  an  expert  opinion.  It  is  based  upon  ten 
decades  of  administrative  experience.  It  is  en- 
trenched in  social  custom.  It  has  behind  it  the 
power  of  a  vast  machine  and  the  prestige  of  great 
achievement.  It  is  sharply  divided  upon  some 
fundamental  issues.  But,  as  in  German  politics, 
so  in  German  education,  the  established  order  still 
resists  attack.  Entrenched  habits  of  mind,  and 
the  presuppositions  upon  which  those  habits  are 
based,  defy  at  present  the  onslaught  of  their  critics. 
The  supporters  of  the  existing  regime  are  on  the 
whole  a  solid  block.  The  critics  either  accept  the 
administrative  principles  of  the  present  system  and 
merely  wish  to  give  an  opposite  colour  to  its  poli- 
tical applications,  or  are  forced  into  extreme  theor- 
etical positions  which  provoke  doubt  or  excite  alarm. 
In  German  discussions  about  education  during  the 
last  three  years  we  see  reflected  the  political  strug- 
gle between  the  Socialists  and  the  established  social 
regime.  Milder  Liberal  opinion  sways  one  way  or 
the  other.  To  such  opinion  the  Junker  is  repug- 
nant ;  the  violent  Socialist  frightens  it.  Between 
these  two  extremes,  Liberalism  stands  disconsolate. 
It  longs  for  reform  in  existing  educational  arrange- 
ments. But  it  is  puzzled  to  know  what  reforms 
are  possible.  It  dares  not  be  bold,  and  remains 
discontented. 

__  8  — 


AS    A  WAR  NURSERY 

The  power  of  organized  education  is  more  gener- 
ally recognized  in  Germany  than  in  England.  Or 
rather  it  has  been  more  effectively  harnessed  by 
the  State.  I  doubt  whether  in  the  interests  of 
freedom  this  has  been  good  for  Germany  or  the 
world.  But  German  education,  as  organized  by 
governments,  has  been  one  of  the  most  powerful 
auxiliaries  of  the  German  Empire.  And  it  has 
served  the  purpose  of  the  existing  economic  regime. 
So  powerful  is  it,  that  the  older  school  of  Socialists 
wish  to  employ  it  in  the  interests  of  collectivist 
Democracy.  It  is  like  an  armed  force  which  could 
conceivably  be  used  against  its  present  masters. 
But  the  younger  Radicals  see  that  a  regime  of 
political  freedom  will  call  for  a  thorough-going 
revision  of  the  teaching-methods  and  school-organ- 
ization which  are  now  dominant  in  the  German 
system  of  education.  On  what  lines  is  that  revision 
to  proceed  ?  What  is  it  in  German  education  that 
calls  most  urgently  for  drastic  reform  ?  These 
are  the  questions  which  harass  the  mind  of  the 
younger  school  of  German  Radicals  and  Socialists. 
America  (and,  in  a  less  degree,  England)  point  the 
way  to  an  answer.  But  American  and  English 
institutions  are  not  popular  in  Germany  at  the 
present  time. 

II 

Monsieur  Friedel  writes  with  knowledge  and  viva- 
city.    He  has  penetration  of  mind  and  a  flair  for 
—  9  — 


THE   GERMAN  SCHOOL 

detecting  the  political  ambitions  of  the  Pan- 
germanists.  As  director  of  the  Musee  Pedagogique 
in  Paris,  he  has  had  access  to  the  documents  of  the 
case.  He  has  made  good  use  of  them.  His  book 
tells  us  much  that  we  English  readers  have  had  no 
opportunity  of  learning. 

Ill 

Perhaps  it  will  not  be  thought  out  of  place  for 
me  to  attempt  a  short  sketch  of  the  situation. 

In  Germany,  education  is  by  law  the  business  of 
each  of  the  twenty-five  States  (large  and  small) 
which  compose  the  Empire.  There  is  no  central 
office  in  Berlin  which  controls  all  German  education. 
No  one  living  can  give  you  all  the  statistics  of  all 
the  German  schools.  And,  in  the  educational  sys- 
tems of  the  various  States  there  are  certain  differ- 
ences of  organization,  nomenclature,  tradition  and 
tone.  It  is  a  patchwork — this  German  education ; 
but  at  the  same  time  a  patchwork  well  sewn  to- 
gether, and  serviceable  to  the  Empire  as  a  whole. 
This  has  come  about  through  the  operation  of  cer- 
tain forces  which  make  for  unity.  For  example, 
the  much-valued  and  socially  influential  privilege 
of  "  one  year  service  as  a  volunteer  "  is  attached  by 
the  military  authorities  to  approved  higher  secondary 
schools  throughout  the  German  Empire.  Again, 
the  Imperial  Law  of  Industry  of  1891  has  encouraged 
the  establishment  of  compulsory  continuation 
schools.  The  Universities  in  German-speaking  lands 

—  TO  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

are  an  intellectual  commonwealth  with  a  free- 
masonry of  mutual  understanding.  The  powerful 
associations  of  teachers  are,  many  of  them,  Empire- 
wide.  And  there  is  a  learned  and  authoritative 
educational  Press.  Therefore  it  is  just  to  speak 
of  the  German  system  of  education,  although  ad- 
ministratively it  is  twenty-five  systems,  not  one. 

To  a  British  observer,  four  things  are  character- 
istic of  this  German  system.  First,  in  Prussia  espe- 
cially, there  is  a  deep  and  significantly  purposed  social 
cleft  between  the  elementary  school  and  higher 
education.  Second,  higher  education  has  been 
made  the  vogue  among  the  middle  classes  by  the 
military  privileges  attached  to  a  select  category  of 
schools.  Policy,  good  sense,  snobbishness,  valuable 
scientific  interests  are  all  mixed  up  in  the  working 
of  this  system.  Third,  the  Universities  are  in  a 
high  degree  under  the  direct  influence  of  the  govern- 
ments. In  subtle  ways,  "  the  pulpits  are  tuned." 
What,  with  a  smile  of  double  entendre,  Mr.  Gerard 
calls  "  the  Rat  System  "  is  not  inefficacious  with 
the  climbing  type  of  don.  Fourth,  German  edu- 
cation has  been  cleverly  and  zealously  adjusted 
to  the  needs  of  modern  industrialism  and  to  the 
policies  of  modern  commerce. 

Now,  what  has  been  the  effect  of  the  war  upon 
the  opinions  and  hopes  of  the  myriad  men  who 
count  in  German  education  ?  How  have  their 
ideas,  their  loyalties,  their  political  convictions, 
re-acted  to  the  emotions  of  the  war  ?  Much  of 

TT    


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

what  has  happened  with  us  has  happened  in  Ger- 
many also.  To  them,  as  to  us,  the  war  has  made  a 
violent  national  appeal.  The  Universities  and  the 
schools  have  answered  to  the  call.  The  young 
men  have  been  heroes.  The  older  men  have  been 
deeply  stirred.  The  institutions  have  risen  to  the 
emergency.  Neither  in  Germany  nor  in  Great 
Britain  will  it  ever  be  forgotten  how  well  the  schools 
and  Universities  served  their  country  in  the  great  war. 
Mixed  up  with  this,  there  has  been  a  certain 
amount  of  super-heated  patriotism.  Some  people 
have  been  silly,  and  over-eager  to  use  the  schools 
for  "  patriotic  "  purposes.  In  Germany,  a  great 
many  enthusiastic  citizens  want  schoolboys  to 
have  their  minds  full  of  soldiering.  They  incite 
the  teachers  (some  of  the  teachers  hardly  need 
incitement)  to  paint  the  Entente  Devil  blacker 
still,  and  to  invoke  the  "  old  German  God  "  as  if  he 
were  the  wealthy  but  half-retired  senior  partner 
whose  backing  was  needed  by  the  firm  at  a  tight 
corner  in  a  speculative  (but,  if  it  only  succeeds, 
gorgeously  remunerative)  enterprise.  There  is 
alarm  in  Germany,  as  in  Great  Britain,  at  the  im- 
morality, indiscipline  and  pertness  of  children, 
whose  fathers  are  at  the  front  and  whose  wages  are 
beyond  all  precedent  high.  Women  are  being 
drafted  into  the  school  service  in  place  of  men  at 
the  war.  This  in  Germany  is  more  of  a  revolu- 
tionary change  than  with  us.  Again,  eager  patriots 
demand  that  the  children's  history  lessons  should 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

be  coloured  by  propaganda.  According  to  some 
purists,  the  French  language,  literature  and  art 
should  henceforward  be  taboo.  Little  Germans  are 
to  be  germanized  further  still  by  all  the  arts  of  the 
curriculum.  And  German  policy  is  to  be  pushed, 
especially  at  Pera  and  in  Latin  South  America,  by 
subsidized  schools  and  by  pertinacious  educational 
preparation.  In  less  grotesque  forms  we  hear  the 
same  kind  of  thing  here.  Education  is  a  great  power. 
If  you  can  canalize  it,  you  can  use  it  hydraulically 
for  public  works.  Science,  if  organized  along  with 
education,  is  a  big  lever  in  State  policy.  For  this 
reason,  since  the  war  began,  the  German  Univer- 
sities have  been  drawn  into  closer  association  with 
the  Technical  High  Schools.  For  more  than  a  cen- 
tury, German  education  has  been  patriotic.  For 
the  last  twenty  years  it  has  been  prone  to  Chau- 
vinism. During  the  war,  it  has  displayed  on  its 
good  side  a  very  noble  patriotism  ;  on  its  vulgar 
side,  a  turgid  and  self-revealing  ambition. 

But  no  one  hates  the  snobbish  and  pedantic 
sides  of  German  education  more  than  do  certain 
Germans.  And  these  men  also  have  talked  during 
the  war.  With  us,  the  great  Public  Schools  are 
not  so  popular  as  they  were  four  years  ago.  Their 
failings  have  been  found  out.  We  admire  and  love 
them  for  their  good  qualities,  but  realize  vividly 
their  comic  shortcomings  and  complacencies.  Still 
fiercer  than  among  ourselves  has  been  the  attack 
upon  the  great  Public  Schools  of  Germany.  The 
—  13  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

Gymnasien  (ironically  so  called)  have  an  illustrious 
history.     But  in  many  respects  they  are  whited 
sepulchres.     Venomous   are   the   lips   which   have 
spat  on  them  since  the  war.'  The  German  is  proud, 
inordinately  proud,  of  his  educational  system.     But 
he  often  has  little  love  for  his  old  school.     He  remem- 
bers the  stiff  pedantry  of  some  of  his  schoolmasters  : 
he  shudders  at  the  memory  of  his  anxiety  about 
examinations  :   he  despises  the  pretentious  dullness 
of  some  of   the  teaching.     He  is  a  heretic,   out 
against  an  obsolete  orthodoxy,  which  is  loaded  with 
privileges  and  hung  about  the  neck  with  public 
honours.     Wisely  or  unwisely,  generally  unwisely, 
he  clamours  for  reform  in  his  public  schools.     He 
knows  that  things  are  wrong,  but  has  little  idea  how 
to  put  them  right.     He  is  hypnotized  by  educational 
presuppositions,    now   superannuated.     He   cannot 
think  himself  free  from  the  ideas  which  still  govern 
the  methods  of  instruction  in  German  higher  schools 
or  their  mechanical  tradition  of  Allgemeine  Bildung. 
But  he  hates  the  spirit  of  the  great  German  Public 
Schools,    and   savagely   criticizes  them.     Nothing, 
so  far,  has  come  from  these  onslaughts.     They  do 
not   touch   the   central   point   of   weakness.     The 
citadels  hold  out.    And  the   Governments  smile, 
make  unreal  concessions,  and  keep  things  as  they 
are.     The  attack  on  the  great  Public  Schools  is  ®ne 
of  the  chief  results  of  war-time  excitement  in  Ger- 
many.    But  the  attack,   so   far,  has  been  futile, 
though  alarming. 

—  14  — 


AS   A  WAR  NURSERY 

Much  more  important  is  another  wave  of  public 
opinion  in  Germany  about  educational  affairs.  The 
sacred  hierarchy  of  the  schools  is  threatened.  The 
social  privilege  of  higher  secondary  education  has 
become  more  and  more  unpalatable  to  the  masses 
of  the  people.  They  groan  under  the  harrow  of 
snobbishness  and  feel  themselves  put  at  a  disadvan- 
tage for  life  by  the  educational  administration  of 
the  State.  The  German  workman  demands  thor- 
oughgoing educational  reform.  He  wants  more 
bridges  over  the  gulf  which  divides  the  secondary 
from  the  elementary  school.  More  than  this,  he 
wants  the  elementary  school  to  be  the  chief  concern 
of  the  Government  and  the  secondary  school  to 
grow  out  of  it  as  a  higher  annexe.  He  demands 
what  he  calls  the  Einheits-Schule.  He  has  been 
brought  up  to  believe  that  schools  are  all-powerful, 
and  he  therefore  assumes  that,  if  he  can  get  equality 
in  the  schools,  he  will  also  get  equality  in  every 
stage  of  adult  life. 

His  dream  is  an  illusion.  Yet  he  is  right  in  hating 
the  present  temper  of  German  school  administration. 
But  his  schemes  of  reform  are  fantastic.  He  asks 
for  impossible  things.  And  therefore  his  demands 
are  smiled  down  by  the  governments  and,  as  the 
Americans  say,  cut  no  ice.  Nevertheless  they  are 
a  portent.  If  Germany  has  a  political  revolution, 
there  will  be  a  revolution  in  German  education. 
The  "  high-brows  "  and  the  "  beat  possidentes  " 
will  have  to  make  terms  with  what  Mr.  Wells  calb 
—  15  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

""  the  common  unhampered  man."  And  in  those 
days,  if  they  come,  Germany  will  turn  eagerly  for 
educational  precedents — to  the  United  States  of 
America. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  established  author- 
ity of  German  education  (especially  in  Prussia) 
stands  unshaken.  Its  garrison  feels  nervous, 
but  holds  the  gate.  And,  as  a  strategical  plan, 
some  powerful  men  in  the  Prussian  Government 
Offices  apparently  design  a  centralization  of  all  the 
educational  controls  in  Germany.  This  means  that 
these  Prussians  want  to  dominate  the  Empire  and 
to  hold  its  political  fortunes  in  their  hand.  There 
will  be  resistance  to  such  ambitions.  Therefore 
those  ambitions  are  for  the  moment  skilfully  veiled 
and  are  pushed  rather  by  intrigue  than  by  open 
argument.  Whether  they  are  to  be  realized  or 
not  depends  upon  the  issue  of  the  war. 

M.  E.  SADLER. 

LEEDS, 

October,  1917. 


— -  16  — 


PREFACE 

HARDLY  had    the  war  broken  out  before  the 
Germans  set  to  work  to  organize  the  fruits 
of  victory.     For  no  one  in  Germany  doubted  it  would 
be  otherwise  than  it  had  been  in  1866  and  1870. 
They  were  ready  :   their  enemies  were  not. 

From  time  to  time,  it  is  true,  German  thought 
conjured  up  the  terrible  consequences  of  a  Euro- 
pean war  :  but  in  order  that  others  might  be  terri- 
fied. Germany  herself  did  not  give  any  real  con- 
sideration to  the  matter.  She  had  become  used 
to  regard  war  as  "  a  necessary  evil  " — to  see  in  it 
"a  test  sent  from  Heaven."  The  citizen — who 
sunned  himself  in  the  slow  but  sure  progress  of 
peace — had  the  sayings  he  had  paraphrased  at 
school  brought  to  his  mind  : — "  si  vis  pacem  para 
bellum  "  :  "  Der  Krieg  ist  ein  grosser  Lehrmeister" 
(War  teaches  great  lessons,  etc.,  etc.). 

The  officers  and  the  recruits  were  told  that  "  by 
making  war  short  and  brutal  they  would  render  it 
human."  They  in  their  turn  got  the  civilians  to 
accept  this  point  of  view.  Such  then  was  the 
German  belief  in  1914. 

—  17  —  B 


PREFACE 

It  is  surprising  to  find  the  propagandists  of  the 
East  of  the  Rhine,  relying  on  the  inadequate  poli- 
tical education  of  the  German  people,  asserting 
that  Germany  did  not  loose  the  dogs  of  war  on 
Europe.  To-day  the  whole  world  judges  differ- 
ently. It  is  true  that  as  far  as  national  politics 
are  concerned  the  Germans  have  remained  the  most 
uninformed,  and  it  is  admitted — at  present — that 
they  are  the  least  advanced  as  regards  world  poli- 
tics. This  political  immaturity  is  for  the  world  at 
large  one  of  the  most  irrefutable  proofs  of  their 
culpability. 

The  imperialism  of  Bismarck  ;  and  the  ambi- 
tions of  "  Kultur  "  had  led  the  Germans  into  a  cul- 
de-sac.  Surrounded  by  nations  in  which  the  rela- 
tions between  the  individual  and  the  State,  and  the 
mutual  relationship  between  the  different  peoples, 
followed  the  natural  evolutions  of  right  and  liberty, 
they  were  unable  to  escape,  save  by  the  sanguinary 
diversion  of  a  war. 

As  in  1866  and  1870  they  meant  to  succeed,  and 
hoped  to  find  in  a  cataclysm  thus  brought  about, 
the  solution  of  the  problems  arising  from  their 
political  system,  but  made  impossible  of  solution 
by  the  realities  of  the  systems  of  all  their  neighbours. 
Here  we  have  the  reason  for  their  dread  of  being 
surrounded. 

Who  created  this  state  of  thought  ?  Who  retarded 
their  political  education  ? 

Germany  is  far  from  being  a  country  of  fools. 
—  18  — 


PREFACE 

To  blame  the  Government — the  political  parties — 
the  military  caste — would  absolve  the  people.  This 
distinction  has  however  been  made  :  the  courageous 
stand  made  by  certain  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  the  peaceful  wishes  of  various  individuals,  have 
been  set  against  the  now  conciliatory — now  brutal — 
attitude  of  the  rulers.  Any  such  attempt  only 
shows  a  misconception  of  the  discipline  which 
pedagogues — following  the  dictates  of  the  State — 
their  head — have  thrust  on  the  entire  nation. 

The  pedagogues  were  the  first  to  bring  to  light  the 
lessons  of  this  "  great  master  " — war.  Belgium 
had  just  been  atrociously  crushed,  when  the  most 
authoritative  of  them  began  to  develop  in  the  big 
"  Dailies  "  their  projects  for  the  "  school  of  to- 
morrow "  (ecole  de  demain)  "  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
new  Germany  of  military  education  of  the  young," 
etc.,  etc.,  and  to  expound  the  principles  of  the  "  peda- 
gogy of  the  future."  Immediately  a  general  and 
passionate  controversy  began. 

It  is  not  the  result  of  chance.  It  is  most  illumin- 
ating that  the  Higher  Command  and  the  Censor 
allowed  this  controversy  to  continue.  In  spite  of 
the  differences  of  their  systems,  the  authors  of 
these  pedagogical  projects  all  aimed  at  the  strength- 
ening of  the  national  power.  The  reforms  suggested, 
however,  are  not  in  any  way  new,  far  from  it. 
Formerly  in  time  of  peace,  parliamentary  opposi- 
tion and  the  political  balance  of  the  government 
had  postponed  them  :  now,  the  experiences  of  the 
—  19  - 


PREFACE 

war,  and  the  national  aspirations  for  the  future, 
gave  them  an  added  reality,  which  was  emphasized 
by  their  contradictions  and  even  by  their  excesses. 
At  a  moment  when  the  government  needed  to  up- 
lift the  spirit  of  the  nation,  discussions  on  the  might 
of  Germany  by  the  education  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion, were  truly  welcome. 

It  was  not  entirely  the  desire  to  profit  by  the 
patriotic  enthusiasm  and  the  truce  between  the 
political  parties,  that  caused  the  pedagogues  to 
act  with  such  ardour  in  the  introduction  of  reforms 
which  had  been  formerly  set  on  one  side.  They 
were  but  continuing  their  official  work.  Had  they 
not  been  told  times  without  number  that  the  vic- 
tories of  1866  and  of  1870  were  the  result  of  their 
teaching  ?  Now  they  were  told  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  conquer  once  again,  in  order  to  save  the 
threatened  "  Kultur,"  that  "  Kultur  "  which  they 
had  extolled  and  built  up.  It  was  their  natural 
duty  to  exploit  the  successes  of  the  war ;  and  to 
point  their  lessons.  The  eagerness  of  the  peda- 
gogues to  seize  public  opinion  from  the  first  days  of 
the  war,  lies  in  their  wish  and  in  their  duty  to  bring 
the  mentality  of  the  people  to  the  concert  pitch  of 
Berlin.  It  was  they  who  brought  about  the  mental 
outlook  which  stupefied  the  world.  Thanks  to 
their  work  the  German  people  were  unable  to  reach 
the  necessary  political  maturity  to  assure  for  them- 
selves, otherwise  than  by  war,  an  internal  and 
external  development,  in  accordance  with  the 
—  20  — 


PREFACE 

general  principles  of  the  civilization  of  our  days. 

The  following  chapters  set  forth  the  chief  aims 
of  this  "  German  war  pedagogy."  In  writing  them 
we  have  not  hesitated  to  make  use  of  notes  made, 
since  the  war,  from  the  chief  German  newspapers. 
The  Press  is,  we  admit,  an  unsatisfactory  authority, 
especially  at  present,  but  the  articles  used  are  signed 
by  names  well  known  in  the  world  of  education. 
Formerly  the  above  quoted  educational  writers 
and  the  high  officials  expounded  their  theories 
in  documentary  brochures  and  in  imposing  tomes  : 
now  they  try  to  reach  the  public  at  large  by  short 
essays  and  concise  judgments.  Their  Press  cam- 
paign is,  however,  no  less  sincere  than  was  their 
official  teaching. 

In  the  compilation  of  this  work  anonymous  ar- 
ticles have  only  been  made  use  of  when  they  have 
appeared  in  controlled  periodicals  or  papers  reputed 
to  express  official  opinion.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  extreme  papers  of  all  opinions  have  been  dis- 
regarded. 

We  trust  that  the  war  may  teach  us  great  les- 
sons. The  German  pedagogy,  as  far  back  as 
August  1914,  displayed  itself  in  its  true  colours. 
It  has  thrown  off  its  idealistic  and  Humanitar- 
ian character  and  become  frankly  Rationalist  and 
Utilitarian. 

Let  us  bear  this  in  mind. 


—  21  — 


J 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION.     By  Professor  SADLER, 

C.B...  Vice-Chancellor  of  Leeds  University  .          .         7 

PREFACE.     By  the  AUTHOR    .          .          .          .  17 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  EFFECT  OF  WAR  ON  THE  CENTRALIZATION   OF 
GERMAN  EDUCATION        ..... 

CHAPTER   II 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND  MILITARY  PREPARATION  .       38 

CHAPTER   III 
MORAL  AND  Civic  EDUCATION        ....       69 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE  "  EINHEITSSCHULE  " 90 

CHAPTER   V 
THE  WAR  AND  HUMANISTIC  STUDIES      .          .         .     120      iX 

CHAPTER   VI 
THE  POLITICAL  R6LE  OF  THE  UNIVERSITIES    .         .     169 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  WAR  AND  THE  GERMAN  WOMAN     .         .          .214 

CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  GERMAN  SCHOLASTIC  PROPAGANDA  IN  FOREIGN 

COUNTRIES  BEFORE  AND  DURING  THE  WAR       .     235 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Effect  of  War  on  the  Centralization  of 
German  Education 

TO  create  an  empire,  Bismarck  falsified  the 
Ems  dispatch.  He  knew  that  a  war  with 
the  "  hereditary  enemy  "  would  enable  him  to 
group  partisans  of  individual  liberty  in  Germany 
around  the  Prussian  standard.  Victory  achieved, 
this  same  individuality  forced  him  to  stop  short  at 
the  principle  of  federation  in  the  formation  of  the 
empire.  All  his  later  activity  was  aimed  at  imbu- 
ing this  organization  with  a  single  and  proudly 
national  spirit  (deutscher  Reichsgedanke)  and  at 
consolidating  it  by  a  close  centralization  under  the 
hegemony  of  Prussia.  Being  convinced  that  "  this 
could  not  be  brought  about  without  a  fresh  war," 
and  whilst  waiting  for  the  opportune  moment,  he 
took  pains  to  prepare  the  framework  of  the  proposed 

unification. 

*  *  * 

To-day,  from  a  military  point  of  view,  Germany  is 
a  united  empire.     The  King  of  Prussia,  as  Emperor, 
is  its  supreme  and  absolute  head.     Prussian  dis- 
cipline  reigns   throughout.     The   individuality  of 
—  25  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

the  various  confederate  states  is  reduced  to  certain 
differences  as  regards  uniform,  which  disappear  in 
time  of  war ;  and  to  certain  unimportant  details. 
It  appears,  however,  that  the  recruits  from  the 
southern  states  on  entering  the  barracks  had  not 
the  same  knowledge,  the  same  keenness  of  intel- 
lect, the  same  standard  of  moral  and  physical 
preparation  as  the  Prussians. 

The  Imperial  General  Staff  had,  therefore,  pre- 
pared, in  case  of  war,  for  the  immediate  mobiliza- 
tion of  the  youth  of  Germany  with  a  view  to  a 
uniform  military  training  (see  Chapter  II).  This 
was  ordered  in  August,  1914.  It  is  the  allurement 
of  an  "  imperial "  institution  which  it  is  suggested 
to  continue  after  thv  war. 

From  a  legal  point  of  view  the  empire  has  tended 
towards  an  imperial  legislation  common  to  all  the 
states  of  the  confederation.  The  application  of 
the  state  of  siege  and  of  the  war  measures,  ordered 
by  Berlin,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  seem  to  have 
produced  different  results  in  the  various  German 
states. 

Is  one  to  believe  that  the  people  of  Saxony  or 
of  Bavaria,  foi  example,  have  not  yet  learnt  to 
behave  towards  the  Prussianizing  imperial  authority 
with  the  same  docility  as  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Mark  of  Brandenbourg,  and  that  their  "  imperial 
education  "  is  incomplete  ?  In  any  case  it  is  a  fact 
that  the  Generals  commanding  districts  have  issued 
police  orders  which  the  zealots  at  Berlin  would  like 
—  26  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

to  see  transformed  into  permanent  imperial  statutes 
(see  Chapter  III). 

From  a  constitutional  and  political  point  of  view, 
Bismarck  and  the  imperialists  experienced  serious 
disappointments.  The  individualist  groups  had 
disappeared,  worn  out  by  vain  protests  :  but  power- 
ful political  parties  had  been  formed,  which  did  not 
delay  in  making  the  Government  feel  their  power, 
at  one  moment  by  an  indiscreet  pressure,  at 
another  by  the  violence  of  their  opposition. 

At  the  same  time  the  economic  impetus  of  the 
country  accentuated  the  antagonism  between  the 
masters  and  the  working  classes.  Whilst  the  more 
frequent  contact  with  foreign  countries  and  the 
growing  ease  produced,  in  the  middle  classes,  a 
state  of  mind  little  in  keeping  with  the  discipline 
which  the  Prussian  doctrine  exacted,  a  foundation 
of  democratic  ideas  remained  in  the  German  mind, 
especially  in  the  centre  and  the  south,  to  which 
the  success  of  individual  effort  in  commerce  and 
industry  and  the  great  diffusion  of  instruction 
were  capable  of  giving  new  power.  How  could 
this  be  prevented  ?  How  could  a  permanent  effect 
be  given  to  the  lessons  of  the  war  for  the  promotion 
of  the  moral  union  of  the  State  and  of  the  nation  ? 

Bismarck  and  his  followers  entrusted  the  task 
of  subjecting  the  German  states  to  the  central 
empire,  to  State  education,  which  had  been  devel- 
oped elsewhere  for  the  good  of  the  principles  of 
democratic  freedom.  This  union  is  completed, 
—  27  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

according  to  their  wish,  in  their  higher  education. 
The  Universities  and  the  High  Schools  are  the 
natural  allies  of  the  Government  at  Berlin  (see 
Chapter  V).  Secondary  Education  is  regarded  more 
than  ever  as  the  school  of  the  elite.  It  prepares  for 
the  Universities  and  professions,  not  only  for  the 
children  of  the  upper  classes  but  also  for  the  pick 
of.  the  middle  class  whom  it  thus  attracts  towards 
positions  of  government.  The  pedagogic  contro- 
versy between  a  classical  and  modern  curriculum 
has  always  had  a  political  background.  William 
II  personally  intervened  at  the  conferences  of  1890 
and  1900,  so  that  a  uniformly  German,  patriotic 
and  national  character  should  be  given  to  this 
teaching.  It  was  therefore  natural  that  the  Prus- 
sian elementary  teachers  should  follow  this  ex- 
ample (see  Chapter  IV). 

As  far  back  as  1908  the  Association  of  German 
teachers  (Deutscher  Lehrervereiri),  a  powerful  pan- 
German  society,  agitated  for  "  imperial  educational 
legislation."  Quite  recently  a  secondary  school- 
master dared  write  in  an  educational  journal,  that 
"  the  decentralization  of  the  German  educational 
organization,  with  all  its  contrasts  and  all  its  strik- 
ing contradictions,  really  surpassed  the  justifiable 
and  boasted  individuality  of  the  confederate 
States." 

It  is  astonishing  to  see  the  obstinacy  of  Prussia 
in  not  being  able  to  recognize  the  superiority  of  the 
elementary  schools  in  Saxony  or  in  the  Southern 
—  28  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

States.  She  has  been  forced  to  model  her  schools, 
as  regards  many  details  of  organization,  on  those 
of  the  neighbouring  states,  but  she  has  never  allowed 
an  occasion  to  pass  of  urging  them  towards  a  patri- 
otic outlook  and  of  commending  to  them  the  morale 
of  her  own  system.  Indeed  the  "  contrasts  and  con- 
tradictions "  come  from  the  fact  that  everywhere 
elementary  education  has  a  democratic  character, 
which  it  has  not  in  Prussia.  In  order  that  this  may 
be  forgotten  the  Government  at  Berlin  has  shown  an 
untiring  solicitude  for  the  teacher.  No  portion 
of  the  most  lavish  praises  of  the  patriotic  merits 
of  the  elementary  teacher  has  ever  been  delivered 
in  the  Prussian  House  without  the  teachers  reaping 
appreciable  social  advantages. 

These  have  been  repeated  on  other  platforms  in 
the  empire,  and  have  been  repeated  again  and 
again  in  the  papers.  What  has  been  the  result  ? 

As  a  result  the  German  elementary  teacher  has 
done  his  best  to  be  worthy  of  this  praise.1 

Were  the  authorities  in  Berlin  convinced  that 
the  Imperial  Education  met  every  contingency  ? 

It  was  unnecessary  to  make  the  University  circles 
and  the  middle  classes  accept  the  idea  of  war. 
Among  the  masses  of  the  people  the  expedient  of 

1  Taking  a  phrase,  invented  by  whom  and  under  what 
circumstances  we  know  not,  Rob.  Kahn  states  "  that  the 
German  elementary  teacher  leads  the  German  people  " 
(Der  deutsche  Schulmeister  marschiert  auch  heute  an  unseres 
VolkesSpitze.}  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  June  12,  1915.  Volks- 
bildung  und  Wehrhaftigkeit,  by  Dr.  Rob.  Kahn. 
—  29  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

the  Fatherland  basely  attacked,  strengthened  by 
the  strongly  imposed  political  truce,  in  other 
countries  brought  about  by  the  mutual  consent  of 
the  parties,  recalls  too  vividly  the  methods  of  the 
Iron  Chancellor  for  one  not  to  see  in  it  a  precaution 
added,  to  make  doubly  sure,  to  the  imperialistic 
propaganda  in  popular  centres. 

War,  once  again,  has  "  united  "  the  Germans  to 
themselves.  And  so  that,  this  time,  the  union 
should  be  permanent,  the  promoters  of  the  central 
empire  have  immediately  re-commenced  the  cam- 
paign for  an  imperial  organization  of  every  grade  of 

public  instruction. 

*  *  * 

From  the  beginning  of  hostilities  the  education 
authorities  in  all  the  German  states  have  asked  the 
teachers  to  bring  home  to  their  scholars,  in  the 
fullest  way  possible,  the  lessons  of  the  war  :  it 
appeared  essential  to  them  to  interest  the  children 
"  in  the  great  events  of  which  they  are  the  uncon- 
scious witnesses." 

In  a  few  months  it  was  possible  to  introduce 
this  scholastic  propaganda  to  the  public  in  the 
capital.  On  March  21,  1915,  the  Prussian  Minister 
of  Education  inaugurated  at  Berlin  "  the  Central 
Institute— Emperor  William  II— for  education  and 
teaching."1  A  kind  of  pedagogical  library,  the 

1  Vide,  amongst  others,  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  April  24, 
1915:  Berliner  Tageblatt,  March  20,  1915.     Leipzig  followed 
this  example  in  June.     Berliner  Tageblatt,  June  15,  1915. 
—  30  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

chief  idea  of  which  being  to  conserve  whilst  mak- 
ing them  accessible,  the  pedagogical  collection 
brought  together  at  great  cost  in  1910  for  the 
Brussels  Exhibition.  As  a  beginning  the  new  In- 
stitute organized  a  special  exhibition  "  The  School 
and  the  War"  There  one  could  see,  so  we  are 
told,  the  children's  compositions  on  the  glorious 
episodes  of  the  war,  topographical  drawings  and 
sketches  relative  to  battles,  models  of  war  machines, 
— girls'  hand  work  to  be  sent  to  the  soldiers  : — 
graphs  showing  the  position  of  the  schools  with 
regard  to  the  works  of  war — letters  from  school 
children  to  the  "  men  in  grey  "  and  the  answers 
from  the  Front,  and  even  collections  of  patriotic 
war  poetry  composed  by  the  school  children.  This 
living  picture  of  the  participation  of  the  little  world 
of  school  in  the  realities  of  the  war  was  frequently 
commented  upon  by  the  experts  in  their  lectures  1 
and  stress  was  laid  on  the  means  and  methods  of 
teaching  which  it  suggests. 

This  Institute  is  as  yet  only  a  Prussian  creation, 
but  seeing  that  it  centralizes  all  that  which  refers 
to  the  German  school,  even  outside  the  imperial 
frontiers,  and  in  that  it  especially  aims  at  point- 
ing out  the  lessons  of  the  war  for  the  whole  German 
nation,  it  follows  that  it  will  become  an  imperial 
organization. 

This  Institute  is  expected  to  expand  by  force  of 

1  It  will  be  necessary  on  another  page  to  quote  one  or 
two  of  these  lectures. 

—  3*  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

circumstance  from  a  centre  of  study  and  of  in- 
formation for  the  use  of  the  schools  of  all  the  Ger- 
man states  into  a  central  Administration  (Reichs- 
schulbehorde)  to  which  all  general  questions,  in 
which  uniformity  is  desired,  would  be  referred, 
such  as  the  professional  preparation  of  the  teacher, 
the  length  of  term  and  of  vacation,  the  scope  of 
the  curriculum,  the  fixing  of  the  school-leaving  age, 
etc.,  etc.  It  seems  as  if  it  would  end  in  overthrow- 
ing the  scholastic  autonomy  of  the  confederate 
states.1 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  Central  Pedagogical 
Institute  a  German  Committee  for  education  and 
instruction  was  formed.  The  principal  pedagogical 
societies  and  such  renowned  educational  experts 
as  Rein,  Wychgram,  etc.,  and  the  high  administrat- 
ive officials  immediately  became  members.  This 
committee  proposed  to  study  the  best  way  of  re- 
solving the  various  pedagogical  problems  which  the 
war  had  created  or  had  brought  under  discussion. 
The  following  subjects  appeared  in  its  programme  : 
unification  in  a  single  homogeneous  organization 
of  all  the  organizations  destined  to  educate  youth, 
from  the  nursery  and  infant  schools  to  the  Univer- 
sities and  the  army  :  the  establishment  of  a  school 
purely  German  in  character  (Deutsche  Grundschule)  : 
the  rational  selection  of  the  chosen  scholars  to  go 
on  to  the  Secondary  Schools  :  the  development  of 

1  Die    Notwendigkeit    einer    Reich  sschulbehorde,    by    the 
Lehrer  Menzel,  (Vossische  Zeitung). 

—  32  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

German  influence  in  foreign  countries  :  the  revision 
of  the  privileges  granted  to  various  educational 
establishments  :  the  physical  and  military  educa- 
tion of  school  children  and  adults  :  the  education 
of  girls,  including  "  the  year  of  State  military  train- 
ing for  women,"  etc.1 

The  German  Committee  owes  its  existence  to  a 
secondary  schoolmaster.  It  would  have  been  as- 
tonishing if  a  member  of  high  education  had  not 
meddled  with  a  question  which  was  more  particu- 
larly of  interest  to  elementary  education.  It  was 
a  future  University  professor,  Privatdocent  Dr. 
Max  Brahn  of  Leipzig,  who  undertook  its  forma- 
tion.2 

Dr.  Brahn  also  considered  that  it  was  time  to 
stop  the  multiplicity  of  German  scholastic  organiza- 
tions resulting  from  the  fact  that  each  confederate 
state  directs  its  education  according  to  its  own  ideas.  „ 

When  the  Empire  was  formed,  no  one  realised 
the  importance  which  a  uniform  education  of  the 
rising  generations  might  have  for  the  German 
imperial  idea.  The  Constitution  of  1871  makes 
no  provision  for  this  question.  The  initiative  of 
William  II  in  summoning  the  educationalists  of  the 
whole  empire  to  a  series  of  meetings  at  Berlin,  to 
discuss  the  various  questions  affecting  secondary 
education  forms  a  precedent. 

1  Vossische  Zeitung,  January  23,  1916 — morning  edition. 

2  Berliner  Tageblatt,  January  16,   1916 — second  supple- 
ment. 

—  33  —  o 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

Has  not  Prussia  often  pointed  the  way  to  educa- 
tional reforms  to  the  confederate  states?  Apart 
from  a  small  grant1  made  to  the  Foreign  Office  to 
look  after  German  schools  in  foreign  lands,  no 
imperial  organization  exists  to  bring  the  schools  in 
the  various  parts  of  Germany  into  close  union. 
There  are  however  in  education  certain  methods 
and  certain  subjects  which  affect  the  well-being  of 
the  whole  nation,  and  ought,  therefore,  to  be  the 
same  in  the  north  and  south  as  in  the  east  and 
west.  Physical  education,  the  aim  of  which  is 
military  aptitude;  civil  and  moral  instruction, 
which  should  aim  at  absolute  loyalty  towards  the 
"  Fatherland ;  "  the  teaching  of  the  language,  of 
the  history  and  the  geography  of  the  nation  should 
not  differ  in  any  part  of  the  empire.  The  same  thing 
applies  to  other  subjects  in  the  curriculum. 

The  moment  has  arrived,  Dr.  Brahn  believes, 
to  cement  the  union  formed  by  the  war  and  to 
put  an  end  to  the  inconveniences  which  too  much 
individuality  has  caused  in  peace  time.  According 
to  his  idea  "  an  imperial  conference  "  (Reichsschul- 
conferenz)  is  necessary.  Men  of  every  profession 
ought  now  to  be  asked  to  attend,  equally  with 
educationalists,  in  order  that  education  may  be 
finally  organized  in  conformity  with  the  practical 
and  national  exigences  of  the  present  and  of  the 
future.  The  Confederate  States  would  be  left  free 
to  arrange  the  details.  In  order  to  provide  for 
1  A  sum  of  6,500  marks  appears  in  the  Budget. 
—  34  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

the  continuity  of  the  decisions  of  this  conference, 
a  permanent  and  central  organization  of  public 
instruction — something  like  an  under  secretaryship 
of  State — would  be  established  at  Berlin  to  decide 
and  arrange  for  the  application  of  the  general  and 
guiding  principles  of  a  uniform  education  of  the 
German  youth  with  a  view  to  the  complete  unity 

of  the  empire.1 

*  *  * 

This,  then,  in  short,  is  the  ruling  political  idea 
underlying  the  pedagogy  of  the  German  war.  It 
will  be  seen  as  the  base  of  each  of  the  controversies 
which  are  summarized  in  the  succeeding  chapters. 
Just  as  some  honest  pedagogues  in  Germany,  we 
have  been  surprised  to  see  an  educational  movement 
start  with  such  bitterness  at  a  moment  when  the 
country  was  entering  into  an  armed  struggle,  which 
was  sure  to  be  formidable.  This  is,  however,  no 
movement  towards  scholastic  restoration  and  re- 
organization such  as  has  taken  place  in  Germany 
and  elsewhere  as  the  result  of  violent  political 
changes,  but  a  deep-laid  political  campaign  disguised 
as  education.  This  accounts  for  its  bursting  forth, 
one  might  say,  automatically,  on  the  declaration  of 
war.  The  trial  found  her  united. 

The  nation  was  led  to  believe  that  it  was  defending 
its  existence  against  its  jealous  and  implacable 
enemies.  Political  discord  died.  This  union  was 

1  Berliner  Tageblatt,  January  16,  1916  ;  vide  also  chapter 
iv.  the  proposals  for 'the  Einheits-  or  Gnmdschule. 

—  35  — 
I 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

to  live  for  ever,  welded  together  by  "  the  thought 
of  Empire."  All  the  forces  of  the  nation  henceforth 
should  be  concentrated  on  this  thought.  The  Ger- 
man nation  must  be  in  a  position  to  reap  all  the 
fruits  of  victory.  It  was  therefore  necessary  that 
a  uniform  education  of  all  her  citizens  should  pro- 
cure immediately  the  necessary  physical,  moral  and 
intellectual  force.  It  is  a  logical  postulate,  though 
hard  to  realize,  of  their  internal  policy.1  The  rul- 
ing party  had  judged  it  wise  to  start  a  movement 
of  this  kind  in  close  connexion  with  politics  and 
with  the  aims  of  the  war.  It  was  not  therefore 
a  question  of  an  education,  broadly  speaking 
humanistic,  nor  of  a  purely  national  education,  such 
as  the  German  thinkers  of  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  desired,  but  of  a  political  and 
nationalist  education  in  accordance  with  the  new 
German  precepts,  which  are  known  under  the  name 
of  "  Kultur." 

The  pedagogy  of  the  German  war  spreads  beyond 
the  domain  of  pedagogy  proper.  It  threatens  in- 
deed to  pass  beyond  the  confines  of  German  inter- 
nal politics.  The  consequences  of  possible  peda- 

1  At  the  Bavarian  Diet  (59th  sitting  of  the  Commission 
on  the  Budget,  February  i,  1916)  a  speaker  violently 
attacked  the  idea  of  a  Reichsschulamt  (an  imperial  office  of 
public  education).  The  Minister  of  Education  replied  that 
this  idea  had  only  occasionally  appeared  in  the  Press  ; 
that  the  Imperial  Government  had  not  taken  the  initiative 
in  this  matter  and  that  moreover  such  a  centralization  was 
not  in  accord  with  the  constitution  of  the  empire. 

-36- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

gogical  shufflings  and  "  the  new  Germany  "  (Neu- 
deutschland)  which  will  result,  should  not  be  passed 
over  without  comment.  It  is  the  winning  hand  of 
the  "  time  after  the  war  "  which  is  being  prepared 
on  the  other  side  of  the  North  Sea. 

Let  us  follow  it  closely.  Even  now  it  is  possible 
to  distinguish  some  of  the  principles  of  this  "  war 
pedagogy  "  and  to  form  an  idea  of  what  the  school 
of  thought  of  the  "  Germany  of  to-morrow  "  will 
be  like,  even  though  it  may  not  be  realized  as  com- 
pletely as  the  majority  of  Germans  of  to-day  would 
wish. 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  II 
Physical  Education  and  Military  Preparation 

IT  has  been  stated  that  the  schoolmaster  won  our 
battles.  Knowledge  alone,  however,  does  not 
raise  mankind  to  the  moral  height  where  he  is 
ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  an  idea,  for  duty  done, 
for  the  honour  of  his  country.  The  whole  education 
of  the  soldier  must  be  added.  It  is  not  the  school- 
master, but  rather  the  State,  which  has  gained  our 
battles,  the  State,  which  for  sixty  years  has  urged  the 
education  of  the  nation  towards  physical  strength 
and  moral  sanity  :  towards  patriotism  and  viril- 
ity. Field-Marshal  Moltke  unfolded  this  pro- 
gramme of  military  education  before  the  Reichs- 
tag in  1874,  for  the  benefit  of  the  representatives 
of  the  confederate  states,  whom  the  skill  of  Bis- 
marck had  grouped  around  the  Hohenzollern  eagle 
in  1870,  and  whom  it  was  now  necessary  to  urge 
forward  as  a  result  of  the  new  imperial  realizations 
based  on  Prussian  ideals. 

Allusion  to  the  middle  ages,  when  the  founder  of 
German  physical  culture  (Turnvater),  Fr.  L.  Jahn, 
advocated  physical  education  with  the  avowed  aim 
_38- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

of  preparing  the  country  for  the  merciless  struggle 
against  the  "  hereditary  enemy,"  sufficiently  ex- 
plains the  "  idea  "  for  which  the  rising  generation 
of  the  empire  should  be  ready  to  sacrifice  themselves 
without  a  murmur.  At  the  time  of  the  wars  with 
Napoleon  the  Universities  had  put  themselves  at 
the  head  of  the  movement.  From  that  time  they 
have  not  ceased  advertising,  in  a  loud  and  military 
manner,  physical  valour  for  the  benefit  of  the 
"  national  German  idea "  (Deutscher  National- 
gedanke). 

The  State,  as  early  as  1842,  had  added  "  gymnas- 
tics "  to  the  curriculum  of  the  Secondary  Schools 
and  to  that  of  the  primary  schools  in  1862.  Many 
times  since  then  have  the  methods  of  school  work 
been  the  object  of  pedagogical  discussion  and  reform. 
The  followers  of  Moltke  were  able  to  refrain  from 
openly  interfering,  as  the  whole  German  education 
was  evolving,  according  to  their  wish,  towards 
the  national  and  military  ideal.1 

1  The  figures  given  by  the  Prussian  Minister  of  Education 
at  the  Budget  Committee  on  February  6, 1916,  are  striking. 
Of  51,018  masters  mobilized,  more  than  6,000  have  fallen  : 
more  than  one-fifth  of  the  students  of  the  training  col- 
leges, who  joined  up  as  volunteers,  have  also  been  killed. 

At  the  meeting  of  March  16,  1916,  the  Minister  stated 
that  out  of  the  15,700  fully  qualified  Prussian  Secondary 
School  teachers  7,000  were  with  the  colours.  Die  Lehrer- 
Kollegien  im  Krieg,by  Professor  P.  Hildebrandt  ( Vossische 
Zeitung,  of  December  5,  1915,  fifth  edition)  informs  us 
that  one  of  the  public  schools  in  Berlin  had  lost  eighteen 

—  39  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

William  II,  more  talkative,  defined  it  more 
clearly  each  time  he  had  the  occasion  to  speak  to 
educationists.  Physical  culture  was  practised  for 
itself,  for  the  betterment  of  the  race,  for  the  good 
of  public  health,  but  its  military  character  was 
retained. 

The  Education  Authorities,  who  asked  for  no- 
thing else,  were  urged  not  to  sacrifice  physical 
exercises  to  useless  studies ;  to  strengthen  their 
obligatory  character,  to  endow  a  sufficient  number 
of  special  institutions,  so  that  every  elementary 


out  of  thirty-three  teachers  :  in  others  one-third  were 
mobilized.  A  National  Liberal  member  suggested  that,  if 
the  scholars  of  the  fifth  form  were  called  up  they  would 
"  form  nearly  an  army  corps  "  (Kolnische  Zeitung,  March 
17,  1916).  The  Socialist  member — Hoffmann — spoke 
of  20,000  youths,  many  amongst  them  being  in  the 
fourth  form,  fifteen  years  old  :  the  Higher  Command  was 
obliged  to  stop  this  stream  of  recruits  who  joined  up  "  in 
der  Aufpeitschung  der  Leidenschaften  in  der  ersten  Zeit,  und 
um  vom  Schulzwang  loszukommen.  Man  ruhmt  sich  noch,  dass 
die  Lehrer  wit  halber  List  sie  dazu  bekommen  haben  "  (In 
the  excitement  of  the  first  days,  and  in  order  to  evade  the 
obligatory  attendance  at  school.  It  is  also  stated  with 
pride  that  the  teachers  half  forced  them  to  do  so  by  ruse.) 
(Vorwdrts,  March  18,  first  edition.) 

Finally  in  the  summer  of  1915,  81  per  cent,  of  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Universities,  Technical  High  Schools,  etc.,  were 
in  the  army  or  in  the  auxiliary  services  ;  and  in  the  winter 
1915-16  as  many  as  84  per  cent.  :  e.g.  more  than  four 
fifths  or,  calculated  according  to  the  attendance  of  the 
last  term  in  peace  time,  about  56,000  men.  This  same 
winter  only  10,000  youths  of  German  birth  regularly 
attended  the  courses  (Tagliche  Rundschau,  June  5,  1916). 
—  40  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  secondary  teacher  could  become  an  expert 
instructor  of  physical  culture.1 

It  is  interesting  to  call  to  mind  the  sarcastic  and 
threatening  criticism  which  was  levelled  at  France 
from  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine  with  regard  to  her 
scholars'  battalions,  to  the  patriotic  character  of 
her  gymnastic  societies  (as  for  example  the  "  Alsa- 
cienne-Lorraine)  :  and  to  the  teaching  of  shooting 
in  her  elementary  schools.  The  Germans  to-day 
quote  the  French  societies  for  military  preparation, 
in  order  to  accuse  her  of  "  militarism/'  and  of  a 
"  spirit  of  revenge,"  but  in  reality  to  bolster  up 
their  own  plans  with  the  precedent  of  French 
example.2 

When  the  German  General  Staff — in  August, 
1914 — mobilized  the  youth  of  the  country,  it  be- 
came clear  that  Moltke's  speech  had  not  been 
delivered  in  Parliament  simply  for  oratorical  effect. 
The  Minister  of  War  included  in  his  preparations 
for  the  conflict  physical  education  as  a  basis  of 

1  It  is  a  known  fact  that  many  Secondary  Schoolmasters 
(Oberlehrer)  add  "  gymnastics  "  to  the  facultas  docendi  of 
Greek,   Latin  and  modern  languages,   etc.     Every  effort 
has  been  made  to  make  this  "  exception  "  the  rule,  and  to 
make  "  gymnastics  "  one  of  the  main  subjects  (Haupfach) 
so  that  the  teaching  of  gymnastics  in  the  schools  should 
only  be  done  by  the  Oberlehrer.     Vacation  training  courses 
have  been  organized  for  teachers  in  general,  and  there  is 
in  Berlin  a  most  elaborately  equipped  institute  for  the 
training  of  teachers  for  this  special  instruction. 

2  Tdgliche    Rundschau,     January,    1916     (evening    edi- 
tion). 

—  41  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

military  efficiency.  This  formed  a  part  of  the  pre- 
parations made  by  him  in  view  of  the  expected 
struggle.  At  the  same  time  the  expression  "  mili- 
tary education  "  (Militarische  Jugenderziehung  : 
Erziehung  zur  Wehrhaftigkeit,  etc.)  appeared  in  the 
leading  papers.  The  Censor  permitted  the  discus- 
sion on  this  controversial  subject  to  burst  again 
into  flame,  because  he  was  certain  that  the  national 
feeling  would  override  the  scruples  of  the  idealistic 
pedagogues.  Public  opinion  had  indeed  also  been 
prepared  outside  educational  circles. 

The  numerous  gymnastic  societies  (Turnvereine) 
had  become  united  after  1870  into  a  vast  and  power- 
ful organization,  (Turnerschaft)  whose  aims  became 
quickly  merged  in  proud  nationalism  and  the  ag- 
gressive display  of  pan-Germanism.  Physical 
training  had  its  place  in  all  political,  social  or  re- 
ligious associations.  Equally  in  sports  clubs,  pure 
and  simple,  every  effort  was  made  to  remove  the 
influence  of  English  models,  and  to  replace  them 
with  uniform  and  aims  dear  to  the  military  mind. 

Finally  the  military  preparation  was  clearly 
evident  in  the  recently  formed  clubs  of  youths  and 
children. 

Their  titles  are  descriptive  of  their  aims  :  the 
Pfadfinder  (boy-scouts),  the  "  Jugendsturm  "  the 
"  Jugendwehr  "  (of  Berlin),  the  JungdeutsMand,the 
Wehrkraftverein  (of  Bavaria),  etc.  In  short,  the 
military  pragmatism,  which  was  officially  denied, 
had  gained  the  ascendancy  wherever  physical  exer- 

42  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

cises  were  carried  out  and  they  were  indulged  in  on 
every  possible  occasion.  The  nationalism  of  Bis- 
marck and  the  militarism  of  Moltke  had  prepared 
the  nation  for  the  effort  which  was  realized  as 

immanent.1 

*  *  * 

#. 

On  August  14,  1914,  a  fortnight  after  mobiliza- 
tion, William  II  gave  his  sanction  to  a  decree  of 
his  War  Minister,  countersigned  by  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  and  by  the  Minister  for  Education, 
ordering  the  formation  of  "  companies  of  youths  " 
(fugendcompagnien,  Jungmannen,  Jungmannschaf- 
ten).2 

Schools,  gymnastic  societies,  sports'  clubs,  cor- 
porations and  municipalities  were  asked  to  form 
into  companies  all  the  youths  of  sixteen  and  even 
fifteen  years  old,  who  were  capable  of  benefiting 
by  physical  culture  and  instruction,  preparing  them 
for  military  work.  One  relied  on  the  patriotism 
of  the  youths  to  make  them  enlist,  and  on  that  of 
their  parents,  employers  and  of  the  Authorities  to 
make  them  take  part  in  the  training.  The  Minister 
of  War,  by  means  of  instructions  (Richtlinieri) 

1  Jungdeutschland,       Neudeutschland,       Alldeutschland, 
Mitteleuropa    (young   Germany,    new   Germany,   pan-Ger- 
manic Central  Europe)  mark  the  stages  in  Germanic  dreads. 
These  are  the  expressions  which  are  to  be  found  on  every 
page  of  the  German  papers  of  these  latter  years. 

2  Every  German  citizen  at  seventeen  years  old  is  land- 
sturmpflichtig ;  i.e.    can   be    mobilized    in   the   territorial 
divisions. 

—  43  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

laid  down  in  what  the  preparation  of  the  future 
recruits  should  consist ;  training  of  the  body  and 
mind  ;  route  marches,  reconnaissances,  signalling  ; 
choice  of  ground,  judging  of  distances — in  short 
all  that  would  prepare  a  young  man  to  become 
rapidly  a  soldier  fit  for  a  campaign,  beginning  with 
discipline.  The  use  of  arms  and  special  drill  were 
not  included  in  this  programme  but  left  for  the 
barrack  square. 

The  fact  that  this  mobilization  of  children  was 
ordered  by  the  Emperor,  the  supreme  head  of  the 
imperial  armies,  proves  that  it  was  to  be  operative 
in  the  whole  empire.  The  avowed  motive  of  the 
measure,  which  was  to  "  facilitate  the  training  in 
the  depots  of  young  men  who  might  be  shortly 
called  to  the  colours,"  and  its  limitation  to  the 
duration  of  the  war,  only  deceived  those  who  be- 
lieved in  a  precaution  brought  about  by  force  of 
-circumstances.  In  reality  the  Government  at  Ber- 
lin had  much  more  far-reaching  aims.  The  com- 
plete and  implacable  exploitation  of  victory  was 
to  create  the  Germany  (NeudeutsMand)  (Beamed 
of  by  Germanism,  a  Germany  definitely  centralized 
under  the  hegemony  of  Prussia,  in  a  position  to  im- 
pose its  will.  As  every  political  question  in  Germany 
begins  with  the  school,  and  ends  with  the  army, 
this  war  measure  of  the  General  Staff  was  regarded 
by  the  public  as  a  distinct  step  towards  the  unifica- 
tion of  public  education  under  imperial  control. 
*  *  * 

—  44  — 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

In  Prussia  the  military  preparation  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  community  was  entrusted  to  the 
presidents  of  the  provinces,  i.e.  to  the  immediate 
representative  of  the  general  civil  government, 
who  had  a  senior  officer  specially  attached  to  or- 
ganize and  direct  these  "  youths'  companies."  The 
other  German  states  followed  the  example  of  Prus- 
sia. The  Emperor  created,  for  Berlin  and  for 
the  mark  of  Brandenbourg,  a  "  General  Commis- 
sariat Department/'  at  whose  head  he  placed  an 
infantry  general. 

The  Ministers  of  Education  and  of  Commerce 
received  instructions  to  form  similar  corps  in  all 
institutions  under  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  to  reduce 
lessons  in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  the  pupils  enrolled 
in  these  companies  to  take  an  active  part  in  their 
training.  In  cases  where  there  was  not  a  sufficient 
number  of  pupils  to  form  a  school  corps,  the  boys 
had  to  join  with  the  youths  who  had  left  school 
in  the  battalions  which  were  to  be  raised  by  clubs, 
factories  and  municipalities.  The  Civil  Authori- 
ties were  ordered  to  help  forward  the  movement 

by  every  means  in  their  power. 

*  *  * 

The  purport  of  the  first  instructional  directions 
(Richtlinieri)  has  already  been  noticed.  The  minis- 
ter supplemented  these,  as  experience  proved  the 
necessity,  and  they  have  now  been  codified.  As 
the  campaign  continued  the  original  organizers, 
chiefly  retired  military  men,  were  called  to  the 
-  45  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

colours,  and  their  places  were  taken  by  benevolent 
civilians,  for  whose  use  publishing  houses  printed 
a  kind  of  catechism  embodying  the  aims  and  ideas 
of  the  military  authorities. 

The  Minister  of  War  had  provided  for  all  con- 
tingencies as  regards  this  forced  military  prepara- 
tion ;  implements  and  maps  had  been  purchased, 
means  of  transport  had  been  arranged,1  and  policies 
taken  out  with  the  insurance  companies  to  cover 
the  responsibility  of  the  instructors  in  case  of 
accident,  etc.,  etc. 

At  first  the  idea  was  greeted  with  general  enthu- 
siasm ;  then  followed  a  period  of  reflection  and 
criticism.  The  parades  to  be  seen  at  Berlin  and 
elsewhere  were  considered  by  the  general  public, 
and  even  by  soldiers,  as  ridiculous, 2  and  the  Minister 
of  War  was  obliged  to  state  that  he  did  not  want 
people  "to  play  at  soldiers." 

As  far  as  the  children  were  concerned  the  mono- 
tony and  fatigue  of  certain  exercises,  the  courses 
of  theoretical  instruction  and  especially  the  disci- 
pline, calmed  their  first  enthusiasm.  Then,  as 
the  classes  were  not  to  be  held  on  Sundays,  so  as 

1  The  instructors  have   free  transport  to  the  manoeuvre 
grounds,  and  the  pupils  benefit  by  reduced  fares.     The 
Budget  Commission  of  the   Prussian  Landtag  wished  to 
extend  these  free  passes  equally  to  directors  and  to  every- 
body helping  in  the  training  of  the  companies. 

2  Die    Verausserlichung   der    militarischen   Jtigendpflege. 
(Major  Corsep  en  Argonne)  in  the  Berliner  Lokal-Anzeiger , 
February  7,  1917. 

-46- 


VV\R  NURSERY 

not  to  prevent  the  children  from  going  to  church 
the  masters  and  parents  considered  that  the  ab- 
sence of  the  young  workmen  for  one  or  two  after- 
noons a  week  was  upsetting  to  the  work  and  a  heavy 
charge,  and,  after  all,  this  preparation  was  not 
obligatory.  It  had  been  organized  for  the  duration 
of  the  war,  but  the  war  was  going  on  interminably. 
The  cost  of  living  was  daily  becoming  higher,  and 
in  many  cases  there  was  no  one  but  the  son  to  gain 
the  wherewithal  to  live  or  to  cultivate  the  land.  It 
is  thanks  to  the  schools  that  the  scheme  has  never- 
theless taken  root.  The  teaching  profession  has 
been  ordered,  since  the  first  days  of  the  war,  to 
interest  their  pupils  by  every  possible  means  in 
the  great  events  which  were  taking  place.  This 
it  did  so  well  that  the  young  minds  soon  regarded 
the  "  youths '  companies "  as  a  useful  adjunct, 
and  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  to  make  the  obliga- 
tion and  organisation  permanent  after  the  war. 

By  the  middle  of  1915  the  main  lines  had  been 
fixed  and  the  instructions  completed,  and  the  Press 
was  called  in  to  enlighten  and  stimulate  public 
opinion. l 

1  The  article  Jugendcompagnien,  by  Professor  Dr.  Walter 
Jesinghaus  of  Berlin,  which  appeared  in  the  Berliner  Tage- 
blatt  of  June  7,  1915,  aimed  at  stimulating  the  zeal  of  one 
section  of  the  community  and  allaying  the  fears  of  another. 
In  January,  1916,  the  Bavarian  Ministers  of  the  Interior,  of 
Religion  and  of  War  addressed  a  new  circular  to  the  generals 
commanding  districts,  to  the  prefects,  to  the  municipali- 
ties and  to  the  representatives  of  counties  and  districts 

—  47  — 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

Proposals  were  then  made  by  pedagogues  to 
include  in  the  curriculum  military  preparation. 
Such  a  proposal  was  open  to  various  criticisms,  the 
least  being  the  certain  disorder  which  would  be 
caused  in  the  traditional  Time  Tables.  The  pro- 
posals, therefore,  gave  rise  to  grave  apprehension. 
Could  the  education  of  the  brain  be  reduced  with- 
out hurting  the  nation's  intellectual  future  ?  What 
subjects  could  be  sacrificed  ?  Would  it  be  possible 
to  find  teachers  capable  of  giving  to  this  preparation 
as  educational  an  appearance  as  the  military 
authorities  desired.  Would  there  not  be  the  inevit- 
able danger,  whatever  steps  were  taken  to  combat 
it,  of  making  the  school  too  military  and,  as  some 
of  the  advanced  politicians  thought,  the  whole 
civil  life  of  the  nation. 

Another  class  of  thinker  was  also  to  be  found  in 
military  circles  :  those  who  did  not  possess  the 
true  military  spirit  :  and  who  made  the  young 
recruits  believe  that  when  they  had  joined  the  corps 
they  had  nothing  else  to  learn  with  regard  to  mili- 
tary matters.  To  them  it  seemed  just  as  dangerous 
to  apply  military  methods  to  civil  affairs,  as  it 
was  to  introduce  civil  methods  into  the  barracks, 
"  as  had  been  done  in  France."  * 

thanking  them  for  what  they  had  done  for  the  military 
preparation  of  the  young  people  and  urging  them  to 
renewed  efforts.  It  seems  from  this  that  the  success  of 
the  first  year  was  incomplete  (Miincheney  Neueste  Nach- 
richten,  January  27,  1916,  morning  edition). 

1  Frankfurter  Zeitung,    September    19  and    26,    1915  : 

-48- 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

It  is  impossible  to  analyse  in  this  work  the  numer- 
ous articles  and  pamphlets  to  which  the  enrol- 
ment of  the  youth  of  the  country  by  the  Minister 
of  War  gave  rise.1 

With  a  very  few  exceptions  professional  or 
educational  writers  have  expressed  themselves  in 
favour  of  the  ministerial  scheme,  and  the  military 
preparation  of  schoolboys  and  youths  has  become 
a  reality  which  future  German  education  will  have  to . 

take  into  its  calculations. 

*  *  * 

In  March,  IQI6,2  the  Prussian  Minister  of  War 

"  Militarismus  und  J  u  gen  derzie  hung  "  :  "  Let  us  leave  these 
stupidities  to  foreigners,"  says  this  serious  paper  in  the  first 
article  dealing  with  organizations  imitating  army  methods. 
The  second  is  a  letter  sent  by  a  Bavarian  colonel  at  the 
Front.  This  officer  is  entirely  against  giving  to  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young,  in  times  of  peace,  any  taint  of  that 
"  sublime  and  sacred  military  character  "  which  children 
cannot  understand. 

1  The  chief  articles  of  the  educational  papers,  as  well  as 
the  pamphlets  and  books,  have  been  analysed  in  the  daily 
papers.     In  addition  to  the  articles  already  quoted  or  to 
be  quoted  suo  loco  ;    the  following  summarize  the  contro- 
versy :     Militdrische  Jugendausbildung,    by  Professor  Dr. 
Hildebrandt,  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  March  20,  1915,  and 
February  6,   1916;    Die  Schulprogramm  im  Krieg,  in  the 
Berliner  Tageblatt  of  April  28,    1915  ;    Sport  und  Spiel  ; 
Die  Militdrische   Vorbereitung    der  Jugend,  by   Councillor 
Suckow  of  Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  Kolnische  Zeitung,  May  10, 
1916.     Sport  und  Spiel,  ibid.,  March,  22  1916. 

2  In  January,  1916,  the  Prussian  Minister  of  War  had 
summoned  to  Berlin  representatives  of  the  various  gymnas- 
tic societies  of  the  five  largest  confederate   states.     The 
reason  of  this  conference  being  to  unify  the  teaching  of 

—  49  —  D 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

invited  State  officials,  educationalists,  presidents 
of  gymnastic  societies,  etc.,  of  the  various  states  of 
the  empire  to  a  course  of  instruction.  The  lectures 
were  delivered  in  the  audience  chamber  of  the 
Prussian  Diet  and  the  conference  lasted  for  several 
days.1  The  ministerial  delegates  again  explained 
the  views  of  their  chiefs  and  laid  stress  on  the  suc- 
cess of  the  scheme.  The  civil  delegates  related 
their  experiences  and  put  forward  their  proposals. 
The  practical  demonstrations  out  of  doors  terminated 
the  discussions.  The  chief  question  was,  it  appears, 
the  obligatory  character  of  the  new  military  pre- 
paration. The  State  officials  who  were  not  certain 
of  the  general  attitude  on  this  point  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  that  opinion  was  strongly  in  favour 
of  compulsion.2 
.  Debates  on  this  current  subject  occupied  the  chief 

German  gymnastics,  and  to  make  it  coincide  with  that  in 
the  schools  and  in  the  army  (Kolnische  Zeitung,  March 
22,  1916). 

1  All  the  principal  papers  gave  accounts  of  the  meetings 
and  analysed  the  questions  discussed — amongst  others  the 
supplement  of  the   Vossische  Zeitung,  March  23,  24,  25. 
Munchener  Neueste  Nachrichten  seized  the  occasion  to  make 
an  active  propaganda  in  Bavaria. 

2  The   president   of   the   gymnastic   council   of   Berlin, 
Professor  Dr.  Reinhardt,  ventured  to  ask  if  it  was  not  pos- 
sible to  waive  compulsion.     Loud  cries  of  "  No  "  answered 
his  question.     One  of  the  officials  from  the  War  Office  had 
just   enumerated   all   the    disadvantages   of   a   voluntary 
system.     The  military  authorities  rely  largely  on  the  ele- 
mentary and  continuation  schools — both  of  which  are  com- 
pulsory and  hope,  therefore,  to  get  the  idea  of  compulsion 
accepted. 

—  50  — 


AS   A  WAR  NURSERY 

place  in  the  discussions  on  the  educational  estimates 
in  the  Parliaments  and  Diets  of  the  confederate 
states.  The  Ministers  took  note  of  the  opinions 
expressed,  almost  all  in  favour  of  compulsion,  but 
as  the  question  had  been  raised  by  the  War  Office, 
and  as  the  army  is  an  imperial  organization,  it  was 

for  the  Reichstag  to  legislate  on  the  matter.1 
*  *  * 

There  would  appear  to  be  no  insurmountable 
difficulty  to  prevent  the  Imperial  Government  from 

1  Die  Jugendorganisation  in  Baden,  Berliner  Tageblatt 
of  February  8,  1916.  There  was  an  exceptionally  full 
discussion  in  the  Bavarian  House.  The  Minister  of  Reli- 
gion spoke  during  the  sitting  of  February  4,  and  advocated 
compulsion  and  a  uniform  system  for  the  whole  empire 
organized  by  the  State.  The  representative  of  the  War 
Office  spoke  in  the  same  strain.  Both  were  in  agreement 
with  the  President,  Dr.  Wohlgemuth,  and  of  the  Deputy,  Dr. 
Muller-Meiningen  (Hof),  whose  treatise  Wir  brauchen  ein 
Reichsjugendgesetzt  (published  by  Teubner  at  Leipzig) 
expressed  the  views  of  Berlin.  The  Socialists  and  certain 
Liberals  only  made  reservations  with  regard  to  compul- 
sion. Moreover  the  Ministers  were  asked  to  act  in  such  a 
way  that  their  Prussian  colleagues  should  not  keep  the 
initiative  which  they  had  gained  for  the  moment.  Mun- 
chener  Neueste  Nachrichten,  January  27,  February  4  and 
16,  March  25,  1916.  The  Association  of  Secondary 
Teachers  in  Bavaria  had  convoked  at  Munich  on  April  25, 
1915,  all  the  organizations  which  were  interested  in  the 
future  settlement  of  the  question.  At  this  meeting  it  was 
decided  that  in  view  of  the  importance  of  military  educa- 
tion, it  would  be  well  to  reduce  the  time  table,  homework 
and  the  exigencies  of  examinations  in  order  to  provide  the 
necessary  free  time ;  for  the  future,  however,  this  education 
ought  to  aim  at  the  development  of  the  body  and  the  mind. 

—  51  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

passing  an  Imperial  law  dealing  with  the  physical 
culture  of  the  youth  of  the  country  with  a  view  to 
the  military  aptitude  of  its  citizens.  It  could  even 
count  on  the  Socialist  vote.1  Parents  and  employ- 
ers are  obliged  to  send  their  children  and  juvenile 
workpeople  to  the  age  of  sixteen  and  eighteen  years 
old  to  the  compulsory  continuation  school  which 
is  held  during  working  hours — they  could  equally 
well  be  forced  to  send  them  to  military  training. 

What  would  be  the  effect,  in  face  of  this  national 
duty,  of  the  protestations  of  a  few  idealistic  peda- 
gogues who  were  terrified  that  the  time  necessary 
for  this  military  training  would  be  taken  from  the 
periods  set  aside  for  Greek,  Latin,  French  and 
English  ? 

The  support  of  a  certain  opinion  and  a  majority 
in  Parliament  may  not,  however,  suffice  to  render 
the  scheme  permanent.  The  financial  question 

1  All  the  Socialists  do  not  regard  the  Erziehung  zur 
Wehrhaftigkeit,  i.e.  physical  culture,  as  a  preparation  for 
military  service,  in  the  same  way  as  Liebknecht.  His 
colleague  Adolf  Hoffman  declared  that  school  and  "  Wehr- 
haftigkeit "  formed  one  whole  and  that  it  was  an  Imperial 
question.  His  party,  therefore,  asked  for  an  "  Imperial 
Education  Bill."  The  Bavarian  Socialists  concurred  in 
this  view,  but,  as  also  certain  sections  of  the  Liberal 
party,  they  declared  themselves  opposed  to  compulsion. 
In  the  Prussian  House  the  Conservatives  clamoured  for 
"compulsion."  The  Minister,  however,  made  no  declara- 
tion on  the  subject,  contenting  himself  with  laying  stress 
on  the  patriotic  devotion  of  the  teaching  profession  and  of 
the  pupils. 

—  52  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

will  play  a  large  role  in  Germany  after  the  war. 
Will  the  State  and  Parliament  accept  the  charge 
of  this  fresh  obligation  when  compulsory  education, 
which  is  more  than  a  century  old,  has  remained  up 
to  the  present  without  the  logical  correlative  of 
being  entirely  free  ?  At  present  the  military  author- 
ities grant  50  pfennigs  per  pupil  to  the  youths' 
companies  for  the  purchase  of  instruments,  maps, 
etc.  The  reduced  fares  on  the  trains  and  trams  need 
not  be  taken  into  account.  At  the  end  of  the  war 
the  municipalities  will  find  themselves  heavily  in 
debt  and  faced  with  heavy  charges  on  account  of 
social  reform.  They  will  not,  therefore,  be  in  a 
position  to  subsidize  the  movement.  On  the  other 
hand  can  the  parents  be  expected  to  provide  and 
renew  clothes  and  shoes  ?  It  is  rather  for  this 
reason  than  to  avoid  confusion  with  the  regular 
army  that  the  Minister  of  War  is  ready  to  "  toler- 
ate "  a  uniform  on  the  condition  that  it  is  simple 
and  bears  no  military  ornaments. 

It  is  possible  to  compel  the  youths  who  are  in 
any  way  under  school  discipline  to  join  the  com- 
panies :  but  the  only  way  in  which  compulsion 
can  be  forced  on  the  youths  of  18  to  20,  who  have 
left  school  and  are  at  work,  is  by  transforming  the 
gymnastic  societies,  the  trades  unions,  the  political 
or  religious  associations  into  State  agents.1 

1  A  quite  recent  addition  to  the  law  on  trades  unions 
allows  young  people  to  become  members.  If,  on  the  one 
hand,  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  they  will  become  prema- 

—  53  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

The  German  War  Office  is  ready  to  strike  the  iron 
while  it  is  hot,  and,  in  profiting  by  the  immediate 
lessons  of  the  war,  is  making  a  propaganda  which 
flatters  and  pleases  the  pride  of  the  nation.  Force 
and  organization  will,  it  is  alleged,  be  necessary  not 
only  for  the  army  but  in  the  politics  and  commerce 
of  the  new — the  greater — Germany.  Thanks  to 
these  two  elements,  has  not  the  army  marched  from 
victory  to  victory  ?  The  force,  however,  is  often 
dissipated  by  illness,  which  is  too  often  the  conse- 
quence of  vice  or  simply  of  abuse  of  life. l 

turely  entangled  in  political  discussions,  there  is  every 
reason  to  hope,  on  the  other,  that  it  will  increase  their 
sense  of  civic  responsibilities,  and  that,  if  the  unions  organize 
physical  training,  the  young  people  will  spend  their  leisure 
moments  in  training  rather  than  in  the  public-house.  Dr. 
Kerschensteiner  of  Munich,  the  well  known  educationalist, 
asserts  the  adoption  of  this  section  as  "  dangerous  madness  " 
(Die  Woche,  vol.  22,  May  27,  1916).  The  associations 
of  young  Roman  Catholics  in  the  diocese  of  Munich  declared 
that  they  were  willing  to  collaborate  in  a  movement  for  the 
physical  development  of  the  youth  but  considered  that 
the  first  aim  should  be  his  intellectual  and  religious  well- 
being  (Neueste  Nachrichten,  February  16,  1916).  The  Roman 
Catholic  societies  for  the  protection  of  youth  have  300,000, 
and  the  Protestant  societies  160,000  voluntary  members 
from  the  families  in  which  a  "  reasonable  state  of  mind 
dominates."  All  these  societies  have  a  religious  aim. 
It  would  therefore  be  running  the  risk  of  extinguishing 
their  influence  and  existence  if  they  were  amalgamated 
with  some  compulsory  organization.  Pastor  Dehn  of 
Berlin  (Deutsche  Rundschau,  June  17,  1916)  is  of  opinion 
that  the  associations  for  the  "  care  of  youth  "  (Jugend- 
pflege)  should  be  left  outside  military  preparation. 

1  The   German   Parliaments   have    discussed   big   legal 
measures  for  the  protection  of  infants,  and  all  the  various 
—  54  — 


AS   A  WAR  NURSERY 

Wealth,  which  has  come  too  quickly,  has  brought 
to  the  rough  German  "  middle  class  "  well  being, 
comfort  and  even  luxury,  which  it  appears  to  be 
using  in  a  wrong  manner.  Excited  moralists  and 
ambitious  nationalists  fear  for  the  future.  For  a 
long  time  they  had  denounced  the  "  weakening  of 
racial  valour  "  by  the  growing  needs  of  the  working 
classes  :  by  the  pleasant  scepticism  of  the  business 
man  who  frequented  the  "  international  palaces," 
by  the  vice  of  the  so-called  artistic  taverns,  intro- 
duced from  abroad  by  the  intellectuals.  A  return 
should  be  made  to  the  "  national  "  virtues  of  the 
old  Germans,  big  eaters,  heavy  drinkers  and  stal- 
wart fighters,  and  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
uncultivated  princes  who  have  created  Germany's 
might — Bismarck  and  the  Hohenzollern.1  To 
those  who  thought  thus,  the  Minister  spoke  with 
fervour  and  for  the  moment  they  were  in  the 


associations  interested  in  these  subjects  have  actively 
taken  up  the  question.  Lively  campaigns  have  been 
started  against  venereal  disease,  against  drunkenness, 
against  infant  mortality  and  for  the  protection  of  natural, 
abnormal  and  degenerate  children.  School  hygiene  is 
recommended  and  "  sex  pedagogy  "  advocated.  In  short 
everything  which,  in  school  or  in  relation  with  the  school, 
can  help  to  diminish  the  waste  of  future  generations  is 
started  ;  and  appeals  and  encouragement  to  increase  the 
birth  rate  and  to  raise  children  in  a  more  healthy  manner  ( 
are  spread  in  all  directions. 

1  Those  who  ask,  in  a  more  cultured  spirit,  to  go  "  Zuruck 
vom  Deutschland  Bismarcks  zum  Deutschland  Goethes  " 
are  much  less  numerous. 

—  55  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

majority.1  The  others,  including  the  Socialists, 
equally  numerous,  were  told  again  and  again  that 
in  order  to  keep  the  possessions  they  had,  and  to 
increase  them,  every  German  of  the  whole  empire 
ought  to  be  able  to  fight  with  his  fists,  make  his 
sword  ring  and  should  keep  his  powder  dry.  These, 
they  were  told,  are  the  secrets  of  commerce  and  the 
essentials  of  fruitful  international  ententes. 
I  Organization  requires  discipline  or,  as  the  Germans 
•say,  "  the  joyful  subordination  of  the  individual 
Ito  the  interests  of  the  community." 

The  military  preparation  of  youth  in  making 
the  race  physically  and  morally  more   vigorous, 
aims,  according  to  the  statements  of  the  Minister 
^f  War,   at  counteracting  this   spirit  of  personal 
independence,    of    exaggerated    initiative,    of    free 
activity,  which  threatens  to  degenerate  into  dis- 
I  sol  vent  "  subjectivism."    The   only  way   of   com- 
bating this  ill,  from  which  "  democracies  perish," 
of  saving  the  German  morale   and   discipline,   is 
by  introducing  a  military  education  into  the  schools. 
Naturally   those    who    represent    the    school,   the 
State  teachers,  are  in  entire  agreement  with  the 
administration.    The    leaders    of    the    movement 
and  their  following  do  not  so  much  desire  the  better- 
ment of  the  race  (Ertiichtigung)  as  the  efficient  and 

1  Der  wahrhaft-herzerfreuende  Erlass  (the  decree  which 
has  really  gladdened  the  heart),  Professor  Dr.  Hildebrandt 
wrote,  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung  of  March  20,  1915,  speaking 
of  the  decree  which  mobilized  the  young  men. 

-56- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

disciplined  valour  for  the  military  career  (Militdr- 
ische   Jugendvorbereitung,    Erziehung  zur  Wehrhaf- 
tigkeit).    The  congress  of  German  teachers  (Lehrer- 
tag)  held  symbolically,  at  Whitsuntide  in  Eisenach, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Wartburg,  where  Luther  translated 
the  Bible,  emphasized  this  distinction  in  a  typical 
resolution .     The  assembly  asked  the  military  author- 
ities to  guarantee  by  imperial  legislation  the  pre- 
paratory school  for  the  army  for  all  the  youths  from 
seventeen  years  upwards  who  could  be    enrolled 
in  the  Landsturm.     It  was,  however,  of  the  opinion 
that  in  the  ordinary  elementary  and  continuation 
schools,  nothing  further  was  needed  than  to  add 
to  the  compulsory  gymnastics  an  equally  compul- 
sory training  in  swimming,  marching,  games,  etc. 
This  instruction  to  be  given  on  one  afternoon  a  week, 
on  a  day  specially  set  aside  for  the  purpose  by  the 
law.     In  this  way  the  scholars,  up  to  the  age  of 
seventeen  years,  would  receive  a  uniform  physical 
instruction  and  training  with  a  view  to  preparing 
them  for  the  preparatory  school    or  the  army.1    The 
Heeresvorschule,  if  established  on  these  lines,  would 
be  quite  unlike  the  democratic  Swiss  "  recruits  " 
school,  in  that   it    would   be    dominated   by   the 
military  spirit  and  in  that  its  final  aims  are  quite 

different  in  character. 

*  *  * 

The  official  imposture  of  the  Fatherland  attacked 

1  Berliner  Tageblatt  of  June  15,  1916,  and  other  papers  of 
the  same  date. 

—  57  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

by  a  formidable  coalition  had  just  brought  about 
complete  union.  Before  the  eyes  of  a  hypnotized 
people,  the  most  imposing  war  machine  that  had 
ever  been  seen  set  forth  for  the  frontiers.  It  was 
at  that  moment  that  the  Imperial  General  Staff 
ordered  the  military  preparation  of  the  youth  of 
the  country.  It  was  needless  to  state  that  it  was  to 
be  permanent  and  compulsory.  The  Government 
was  certain  that  by  allowing  the  question  to  be 
discussed  in  spite  of  the  state  of  siege  the  nation 
would  itself  demand  these  two  principles  :  and  would 
break  down  without  pity  any  opposition  to  their 
application. 

The  cases  of  the  Socialist  member  Liebknecht 
and  of  the  University  professor  Fr.  W.  Foerster  are 
very  characteristic  in  this  respect. 

On  March  16  last,  during  the  discussion  on 
the  Educational  Estimates  in  the  Prussian  House, 
Liebknecht  made  a  violent  protestation  against 
"  the  militarization  of  the  school."  "  More  than 
ever,"  he  said  amongst  other  things,  "  the  primary 
school  is  exploited  nowadays,  in  order  to  consolidate 
the  position  of  the  ruling  classes,  and  to  capture  the 
mind  of  the  young  proletariat  for  the  benefit  of 
these  classes  and  for  militarism."  The  militariza- 
tion of  the  school  has  been  designed  by  various 
middle-class  partisans  as  a  phenomenon  which  calls 
for  thought.  Even  at  school  men  are  being  edu- 
cated to  become  war-machines.  School  is  a  train- 
ing establishment  for  war.  Physical  endurance  is, 
-58- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

at  this  moment,  especially  in  favour,  because  fresh 
material  must  be  furnished  to  the  Moloch — which 
is  militarism.  The  health  of  man  is,  therefore, 
improved  in  order  that  he  may  destroy  human  life. 
Liebknecht  quoted  in  support  of  his  thesis  a  decree 
of  the  President  of  the  government  of  Frankfurt- 
on  the  Oder,  von  Schwerin,  who  ordered  the  teachers 
in  the  secondary  schools  to  "  eradicate  from  the 
minds  of  their  pupils  the  sentiment  of  the  general 
brotherhood  of  nations  and  of  international  paci- 
fism ;  to  be  very  careful  not  to  excuse  or  attenuate 
the  crimes  committed  against  Germany  by  her 
enemies,  and  to  take  every  step  to  inculcate  in  the 
minds  of  their  scholars  hatred  and  anger." 

Liebknecht  learnt,  on  that  day,  all  the  hardships 
of  parliamentary  procedure.  The  Government  par- 
tisans, led  by  the  Conservatives,  covered  him  with 
insults.  The  sitting  was  one  of  the  most  uproarious 
that  had  ever  been  witnessed  in  the  Prussian  House.1 
Arrested  in  the  street  a  short  time  afterwards  Lieb- 
knecht was  imprisoned  and  condemned  for  High 
Treason. 

A  month  later  a  professor  of  philosophy  and 
pedagogy  at  the  University  of  Munich — Fr.  W. 
Foerster  made  very  similar  statements,  concerning 
the  "  premature  and  unseasonable  cramming  of 
the  child  mind  with  military  ideas."  Very  sincere 

1  The  analytical  account  published  in  the  Vorwdrts  of 
March  17,  1916,  has  been  followed,  as  it  is  more  complete 
than  the  Government  papers. 

—  59  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

and  very  individual,  a  writer  of  great  talent  and 
an  inspiring  lecturer,  Prof.  Fr.  W.  Foerster  holds 
opinions  with  regard  to  the  future  of  his  country 
diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  his  contempor- 
aries. He  maintains  that  the  principal  thing  in 
political  parties,  social  classes  and  religious  beliefs 
at  home,  and  in  nations  of  different  descent  and 
culture  abroad,  is  not  so  much  the  force  of  loud 
speech  and  of  the  sword,  but  the  moral  force  which 
is  able  to  prevent  inevitable  conflicts  and  to  prepare 
for  the  union,  without  which  neither  individuals 
nor  nations  can  live  and  prosper.  The  military 
preparation  of  youth,  Foerster  states,  forms  an 
aggressive  and  dominating  character,  devoid  of 
force  and  nobility,  incapable  of  ruling  its  passions, 
and  lacking  in  balance  and  judgment  in  moments 
of  stress.  Without  moral  force  no  useful  physical 
action  is  possible;  that,  according  to  him,  is  the 
fundamental  axiom  of  all  education.  "  Simply  to 
form  soldiers  would  injure  the  greatness  of  the 
German  people.  Not  only  would  military  success 
not  be  assured  (because  the  God  of  War  is  capri- 
cious) but  he  would  be  powerless  to  develop  at  home 
or  abroad  :  he  would  be  unable  to  perform  his 
national  and  international  missions,  and  it  would  be 
impossible  for  him  to  turn  his  natural  and  acquired 
qualities  to  account." 

Fr.  W.  Foerster,  whilst  being  thoroughly  and 
proudly    German,   is    a    clear-sighted    pedagogue. 
His  works  on  education  are  masterpieces  of  pro- 
—  60  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

found  and  just  observation.     He  considers  that  it  is ^ 
impossible  to  make  children  realize  all  the  serious- 
ness of  a  terrible  war,  and  to  apply  to  them  the 
relentless  discipline  of  the  military  system. 

The  school  can  and  should  only  give  a  general 
and  appropriate  physical  education,  borrowing  at 
the  most  from  the  military  system  certain  interest- 
ing exercises  such  as  those  performed  by  the  "  Boy 
Scouts."  He  concludes :  "  Young  men  courageous 
in  their  military  service — that  is  German;  a  mili- 
'  tia  of  young  Germans  is  not."  1 

In  the  first  chapter  of  a  book,  very  well  known 
in  Germany,  on  "  The  World  War  in  Education," 
Fr.  W.  Foerster  described  the  new  pedagogical 
duties  of  our  day.  Having  regard  to  his  great 
authority  as  Sociologist  and  Pedagogue,  "  he  had 


1  Berliner  Tageblatt,  February  n  and  12,  1916: 
"  Deutsch  ist  eine  wehrhafte  Jugend,  undeutsch  ist  eine 
deutsche  Jugendwehr."  According  to  the  Vossische  Zeitung 
of  June  29,  1915,  there  was  a  German  Jugendwehr  at  the 
time  of  the  thirty  years'  war.  The  learned  paper  reprints 
from  a  book  entitled  "  Irenomachie,  Of  Peace  and  War  "  ; 
a  dialogue  between  Peace  (Irene)  and  the  Capitanus  puero- 
rum  who  directs  the  exercises  of  the  pueri  milites.  "  The 
child,  says  Peace,  practises  what  he  has  learnt ;  it  would 
therefore  be  better  to  teach  him  to  keep  peace  than  to  make 
war."  "  We  are  at  war,"  answers  the  lieutenant.  "  That 
results  from  the  fact  that  nobody  knows  how  to  keep  peace  : 
it  will  be  re-established,  and  will  be  well  suited  to  your 
Kingdom. "  "  What  have  we  to  discuss  with  this  woman  ? ' ' 
says  the  subaltern,  "  let  us  continue  our  exercise."  This 
reminiscence  bears  the  impress  of  the  present  time. 
—  61  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

not  been  put  in  the  same  boat  "  as  the  "  molluscs  l 
who  attempt  to  introduce  into  the  school  ideas 
which  are  contrary  to  brotherly  love,  and  to  the 
reconciliation  of  nations,"  and  to  the  "  cowards  " 
who  lack  the  courage  to  profit  by  the  occasion  to 
make  "  the  ideal  of  the  exclusively  German  reality  " 
triumph,  and  to  leave  the  German  lower  classes 
brutally  to  assert  their  superiority  alone  against 
all,  by  all  the  German  methods  which  war  has 
taught  them. 

Fr.  W.  Foerster,  unluckily  for  himself,  is  unfor- 
tunate enough  to  have  ideas  worthy  of  a  wide- 
minded  thinker ;  he  has  the  misfortune  to  deduce 
from  them,  with  relentless  logic  and  inflexible 
scientific  honesty,  the  facts  of  the  political  and  social 
history  of  his  own  country  and  of  other  nations ; 
and  he  makes  the  error  of  upholding  his  ideas  with  a 
courage  all  the  more  noble  in  that  it  is  rare  amongst 
his  compatriots,  at  a  time  when  they,  hypnotized, 
throw  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  "  military 
Moloch."  The  University  of  Munich  has  publicly 

1  Schule  und  Friedensziele.  Fine  nationale  Gefahr,  by 
the  secondary  schoolmaster  Erich  Meyer  in  the  Tagliche 
Rundschau  of  January  2  and  3,  1916.  A  lie  jene  Typen 
von  Nachtmutzen  Trotteln  Schlappschwdnzen,  Waschlappen 
(ein  Segen  dass  wir  in  unserer  Sprache  diese  herzerfrischen- 
den  Anschaulichkeiten  haben)  sie  werden  wach  und  erheben 
ihre  Stimmchen  (all  these  types  of  weaklings,  chicken- 
hearted  fellows,  hangers-on  (how  fortunate  that  we  have 
in  our  language  these  realistic  expressions  which  rejoice 
the  heart)  wake  up  and  raise  their  little  voices. 
—  62  — 


AS   A  WAR  NURSERY 

dissociated  itself  from  its  troublesome  member, 
who  dared,  in  a  Berlin  newspaper,  to  dissuade  the 
people  from  the  military  preparation  which  the 
majority  of  the  Germans  desired.1 

So  far  no  Imperial  law  has  been  passed.  The 
gymnastic  societies  have  elaborated  a  project ; 
but  the  governmental  press  has  received  their 
initiative  and  their  proposals  with  ironical  disdain. 
There  are  some  patriots  who  would  like  to  turn 
Germany  into  a  big  "  school  for  N.C.O.'s  " — with  a 
little  science  added  to  leaven  the  time  table  ! 

The  Imperial  Government  awaits  the  course  of 
events.  For  the  moment  it  is  sufficient  if  the 
federal  authorities  enforce,  in  the  day  schools  and 
gymnastic  and  sporting  clubs,  the  decree  of  1914. 
The  German  illustrated  papers  contain  photographs 
of  physical  exercises,  parades  and  distribution  of 
prizes,  etc.,  which  show  that  the  military  authorities 
have  the  question  of  "  youths'  companies  "  well 
in  hand. 

In  the  autumn  of  1916,  the  Prussian  War  Minister 
wanted  to  see  the  results  of  the  decree  of  1914.  A 

1  This  is  the  famous  "  Foerster  Case  "  which  the  French 
Press  has  reported  incompletely  and  in  certain  details 
incorrectly.  Herr  Foerster  is  the  son  of  a  Berlin  astronomer 
who  is  best  known  as  the  advocate  of  moral  culture  (ethische 
Kultur)  and  as  consignee  of  the  miserable  manifesto  of  the 
ninety-three.  He  was  educated  at  the  Technical  School 
of  Zurich  and  later  at  the  University  of  Vienna.  Thence 
he  was  appointed  to  Munich  not,  it  is  said,  by  the  Senate, 
but  by  the  Catholic  Government  of  Bavaria.  This  is  more 

-63- 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

general  competition  of  all  the  organizations  which 
had  been  formed  in  Prussia,  with  a  view  to  the 
military  preparation  of  the  rising  generation  was 
arranged.  The  report  on  this  meeting  was  sent  to 
the  Emperor,  who  replied  by  an  "  order  "  issued 
to  Headquarters  on  January  8,  1917,  and  published 
in  the  official  Army  Orders.  It  was  reproduced  in 
all  the  German  papers.  In  it  William  II  expressed 
his  royal  thanks  to  all  those  who  had  co-operated 
in  this  patriotic  work  ;  and  especially  to  the  youths 
who  "  from  duty  to  the  Fatherland,  give  up  their 
leisure  to  strengthen  their  bodies  and  to  train 
themselves  for  war."  The  War  Minister  seized 
this  occasion  to  complete  the  main  lines  of  the 
military  preparation  by  certain  clever  recommenda- 
tions. The  following  give  their  tenor  : — 

(i)  Military  preparation  is  an  institution  which 
has  to  do  with  military  service  (militdr- 
dienstliche  Einrichtung).  It  is  quite  dis- 

than  enough  to  account  for  his  not  being  a  prophet  in  his 
own  country. 

"  Le  Musee  Pedagogique  "  (41  rue  Gay-Lussac,  Paris) 
contains  the  following  works  by  Prof.  Fr.  W.  Foerster  : 
Schule  und  Character — Beitrage  zur  Padagogik  des  Gehor- 
sams  und  zur  Reform  der  Schuldisciplin  (Zurich,  1910)  ; 
Schuld  und  Suhne — Einige  psychologische  und  padagogische 
Grundfragen  des  Verbrecherproblems  und  der  Jugendfiir- 
sorge  (Munich,  1911),  and  the  translations  of  Pour  former 
le  caracte're  (translation  by  Thirion,  Paris,  sixth  edition, 
Fischbacher)  ;  and  L'ecole  et  le  caractdre  (The  moral  pro- 
blems of  school  life),  translation  by  Borel,  (published  by 
Fishbacher). 

-64- 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

tinct  from  the  organizations  which  aim  at  the 
general  development  of  youth  (Jugend- 
pflege). 

(2)  In  order  to  help  the  delegates  and  to  organize 

courses  of  instruction,  for  the  use  of  the 
teachers,  the  generals  commanding  dis- 
tricts.1 and  the  general  royal  commissariat2 
should  obtain  the  voluntary  assistance  of 
officers  unfit  for  active  service ;  or  should 
commandeer  officers  on  leave ;  or  civilians 
having  the  rank  of  officer.  One  of  these 
officers  will  be  attached  to  each  delegate  ; 
two,  if  the  delegate's  district  is  a  very 
large  one.  Officers  who  have  already  had 
experience  in  the  training  of  youth  should 
be  taken  first. 

(3)  Medical  advisers — if  possible  doctors  whose 

official  duty  is  the  care  of  children — should 
be  got  to  interest  themselves  in  the  institu- 
tion. 

(4)  The  directors  and  instructors  of  the  various 

units  are  selected  by  the  delegates ;  and 
should  promise  to  teach  their  group  in 
accordance  with  the  directions  of  the 
military  authorities.  Schools,  societies  or 
associations  for  the  physical  development 


1  Ad  interim — replacing,  during  the  war,  the  generals 
commanding  the  army  corps  at  the  Front. 

2  For  Berlin  and  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg. 

—  65  —  E 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

of  youth,  etc.,  will  be  able  to  make  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  choice  of  the  directors  and 
instructors. 

(5)  In  the  event  of  a  dearth  of  directors  and 

instructors  the  delegates  will  ask  the  General 
commanding  the  district  to  commandeer 
provisionally  (zur  Aushilfe)  officers,  N.C.O.'s 
and  men  who  have  been  wounded  in  the 
war. 

(6)  Delegates,  directors  and  instructors  are  again 

most  strongly  recommended  to  collaborate 
closely  with  [the  civil  authorities — with  the 
schools,  with  the  clergy,  with  the  official 
committees  who  are  interested  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  rising  generation  and  with  private 
societies.  In  order  to  simplify  the  arrange- 
ments with  the  clergy,  with  regard  to  the 
exercises  which  have  to  take  place  on  Sunday, 
they  should  be  fixed,  once  and  for  all,  at 
a  time  which  suits  the  local  conditions. 

(7)  All  overwork  of  the  young  people,  e.g.  long 

marches  with  packs,  is  forbidden.  Night 
operations  must  not  curtail  the  sleep  of  the 
youths,  and  must  be  limited  to  the  hours 
of  twilight  and  dawn. 

(8)  It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  make  and 

conserve  suitable  training  grounds  and 
means  of  instruction.  The  results  already 
obtained  permit  of  the  certain  hope  that 
the  interested  parties,  efficaciously  sup- 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

ported  by  the  Government  and  the  com- 
munal authorities,  will  procure  for  our 
youths  training  grounds,  if  possible  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  large  towns, 
and  the  necessary  means  of  exercise,  in 
order  to  make  them  more  vigorous  and  apt 
for  military  service  (Ertiichtigung  und 
Wehrhaftmachung) . 

In  winter,  a  sufficient  number  of  halls 
and  large  rooms  will  be  found  in  the  towns 
and  large  villages  ;  and  empty  barns  in 
the  country  in  which  physical  exercises  and 
military  movements  can  be  carried  out 
(Wehrturnen). 

Those  interested  in  this  movement  will 
learn  with  pleasure  and  satisfaction  that  the 
spontaneous  and  devoted  activity  of  the 
directors  and  leaders,  as  also  the  joyous 
ardour  of  "  the  young  men  "  to  enlist,  have 
received  merited  recognition  from  such 
high  quarters.  There  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  masters  and  the  "  young 
men  "  will  continue  in  the  future  to  devote 
themselves  with  pleasure  and  enthusiasm 
to  the  serious  work  which  they  have 
voluntarily  undertaken  ;  especially  so  now 
that  the  "  All  Highest "  has  shown  his 
keen  interest  in  their  patriotic  work ;  and 
that  he  has,  by  his  praise,  also  shown  to 
the  public  at  large  the  great  importance  to 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

the  army  of  the  military  preparation  of  the 
youth  of  the  country. 

This  new  appeal — because  that  is  what  it  really 
was,  presents  the  military  preparation  as  it  is  under- 
stood by  official,  Prussian,  Germany  "  in  its  true 
colours/'  William  II  and  his  Minister  of  War 
address  the  whole  of  the  corps  already  formed, 
and  the  civil  groups,  including  the  clergy.  The 
aim  is  not  hidden  in  the  least  nor  the  assurance 
that  the  institution  will  remain  the  same  in  char- 
acter, in  memory  of  the  great  events  after  the  war. 

Things  will  have  changed  in  Germany  by  the  time 
the  discussion  on  the  desired  Imperial  Law — if  it 
ever  takes  place — is  held.  More  numerous  and 
less  timid  objections  will  make  themselves  heard. 
Military  preparation  will  nevertheless  continue.  It 
is  in  the  Prussian  temperament.  The  "  State — the 
Educator "  will  abandon  neither  the  nationalist 
instruction  nor  the  military  education,  which  she 
has  followed  since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century, 
whether  she  does  it  openly  or  under  the  cloak  of 
pedagogy,  of  sport  and  of  hygiene. 

It  is  the  duty  of  her  neighbours  who  have  been 
warned,  to  be  on  their  guard. 


68  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 


CHAPTER  III 
Moral  and  Civic  Education 

THIS  is  not  the  place  to  judge  the  morale 
of  the  German  army,  their  Press,  their  inter- 
nal and  external  policy  or  their  Civil  Service  during 
the  war.  It  is  to  be  hoped  for  their  own  sake  that 
they  will  find  amongst  themselves  some  "  Foersters  " 
who  will  one  day  speak  to  the  nation  perfectly 
sincerely  and  loyally.  They  have  already  realized 
what  has  happened  in  the  realm  of  education.  A 
moral  crisis  has  broken  out  amongst  the  youth  of 
the  nation  with  such  violence  and  so  suddenly  that 
it  has  been  impossible  either  to  hide  or  to  modify 
it.  Prof.  Fr.  W.  Foerster  seems  to  be  right  in  demand- 
ing before  everything  a  healthy,  moral  pedagogy. 

The  Germans  have  always  boasted  of  the  educat- 
ive value  of  their  pedagogy  ;  and  they  seem  to  have 
some  reason  for  their  pretension.  Their  early 
educators  emphasized  the  spiritual  side  of  educa- 
tion, and  their  most  heated  pedagogical  discussions 
were  aimed  at  the  partisans  of  education  and  the 
pedants  of  instruction.  French  educationalists  will 
remember  with  what  sarcasm  certain  German  peda- 
gogues, especially  the  theologians,  hailed  the  appear- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

ance  of  moral  education  in  the  undenominational 
primary  schools  in  France.  They  would  hardly 
allow  the  extenuating  circumstances  which  the 
frankness  of  the  French  admissions  with  regard  to 
their  commencing  experiences  merited.  These 
could  not  be  regarded  as  conclusive  1  as  the  curri- 
culum for  the  new  education  was  being  devised, 
.and  the  teachers  could  not  successfully  give,  at 
once,  instruction  calling  for  such  delicate  handling. 
After  lengthy  discussions,  and  thanks  to  the  patient 
efforts  of  certain  earnest  pedagogues,  the  German 
authorities  decreed  that  moral  instruction  should 
be  given,  leading  up  to  religious  teaching,  in  the 
history  classes,  and  reading  lessons.  What  is  the 
use — they  said — of  creating  a  special  kind  of  in- 
struction to  develop  qualities  which  have  always 
flourished  of  themselves  in  the  minds  of  the  German 
people,  in  such  a  way  as  to  have  raised  her  moral 
"  Kultur  "  far  above  that  of  all  other  nations.  It 
is  evident  that  the  German  educationalists  have 
never  really  grasped  the  nature  and  effect  of  the 
French  moral  instruction.  A  very  amusing  proof 
is  given  by  a  curious  "  war  "  article  in  the  Frank- 
furter Zeitung.2 

1  We  refer  to  the  criticism  levelled  in  Germany  at  the  re- 
port of  F.  Lichtenberger,  published  by  the  "  Musee  Pedago- 
gique  "  for  the  exhibition  of  1889,  in  Memoire  set  Documents 
scolaire,  2  s6rie,  No.  28.      The  letters  exchanged  between 
Mr.  F.  Buisson  and  Mr.  Ch.  Wagner  on  this  subject  are  no 
less  interesting  (Fischbacher,  Paris). 

2  February  16,  1916. 

—  70  — 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

An  officer  of  the  German  medical  services  found l 
in  the  school  in  a  small  French  village  of  180  in- 
habitants, situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Meuse,  two 
notebooks  which  had  belonged  to  a  little  girl  in 

the  middle  standards,  Georgette  M ,  tnat  is  to 

say,  according  to  the  German  officer's  belief,  to 
a  scholar  not  yet  thirteen  years  old,  but  possibly 
two  years  younger.  These  notebooks  bear  the 
date  of  the  school  years  1909  and  1910.  The  officer 
sent  them  to  a  friend,  Ludwig  Goldschmidt  of 
Gotha,  who  considered  them  of  sufficient  interest 
to  warrant  their  contents  being  published  for  the 
information  of  the  readers  of  the  Frankfurt  papers. 
His  article  is  entitled  Kant  in  a  French  Village 
School.  It  is  indeed  the  philosophy  of  the  author 
of  the  Criticism  of  Pure  Reason,  and  the  moral  of 
the  Prussian  thinker  that  M.  Goldschmidt  discovers 
in  the  pages  stolen  from  a  French  primary  school. 
The  audacity  of  the  village  schoolmaster  on  the 
Meuse  disconcerts  him  just  as  much  as  his  talent. 
"  For,"  he  says,  at  the  beginning  of  his  article, 
"  the  present  day  French  celebrities  in  the  domain 
of  philosophy  only  have  the  renown  which  they 
ascribe  to  themselves  :  they  are  not  even  plagiar- 
ists, so  completely  are  their  writings  devoid  of  sense 
and  reason ."  "  As  for  Kant ,  no  single  Frenchman — 
with  the  exception  of  the  '  noble  '  Mme.  de  Stael — 

Other  cases  of  the  interest  displayed  by  the  invaders 
in  searching  the  French  libraries  and  schools  will  be  noted, 
and  their  reflections  quoted. 

—  71  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

has  ever  understood  any  of  his  works,"  etc.,  etc. 
Therefore,  on  reading  in  the  two  note  books,  set 
forth  in  the  most  complete  and  clear  simplicity  ? 
the  "  ideas  "  of  morale  and  of  philosophy  which  the 
philosopher  of  Koenigsberg  had  formulated  of  yore 
for  the  use  of  his  compatriots,  the  good  German  was 
plunged  into  a  profound  and  admiring  stupefaction. 
What  a  great  pity  that  "  this  perfect  master,  with 
such  a  forceful  personality,  should  be  condemned  to 
lecture  to  the  restricted  audience  of  a  small  French 
village  !  " 

"  Everything  which  fills  the  minds  of  the  children 
during  successive  days  appears  in  living  form  before 
us.  Everything  is  well  arranged.  Each  day  has 
its  allotted  subject — the  maxim  for  the  day.  These 
are  usually  questions  of  morals,  the  moral  law,  false- 
hood, personal  dignity,  moderation,  honesty,  anger, 
pride,  modesty.  Such  are  the  subjects  which  this 
'  village  Socrates  '  expounds  to  his  pupils.  Other- 
wise they  are  details  about  the  Constitution,  the 
State,  the  Commune  and  the  muncipal  council, 
etc.,  etc." 

The  daily  lesson  is  treated  in  three  parts.  Care- 
fully chosen  moral  phrases  are  used  as  the  copy  for 
the  writing  lesson  ;  then  follows  a  dictation,  a  short 
composition  or  an  explanation,  and  finally  a  problem 
the  data  of  which  refer  to  the  maxim  of  the  day. 
"  Only  once  is  there  any  exception  to  this  arrange- 
ment, and  this  exception  does  not  appear  due  to 
chance  (sic  !)  ;  that  is  when  the  master,  in  the 
-72  - 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

lesson  on  lying,  had  the  entire  verb  :  to  speak  the 
truth,  conjugated.'1 

The  arithmetical  problem  set  in  connexion  with 
the  lesson  on  War,  was  to  calculate  to  how  many 
working  people  an  annuity  of  600  francs  could  have 
been  given  if  the  five  milliards  paid  to  the  conquer- 
ors in  1871  had  been  lent  out  at  4  per  cent.  "  How- 
ever," Goldschmidt  says,  "  the  master  is  not  a 
militant  Socialist,  because  on  the  cover  of  one  of 
the  books  is  a  strong  condemnation  of  strikes ; 
he  is  a  good  patriot  and  a  true  Republican,  because 
he  dictates  to  his  pupils  that  "  the  Republic  is  the 
final  government  of  France." 

The  paragraphs  on  the  love  of  one's  own  country, 
on  true  patriotism,  and  on  the  lessons  to  be  learnt 
from  History,  appeared  so  excellent  to  the  German 
critic  that  he  translated  them  in  their  entirety.  In 
these,  the  French  schoolmaster  says  to  the  children 
that  "  true  love  for  one's  country  does  not  consist 
in  slandering  strangers,  nor  in  despising  those  who 
have  left  France  :  that  all  nations  have  contributed 
their  share  to  civilization  : — that  all  possess  their 
illustrious  men,  their  scholars,  their  heroes,  their 
poets  and  their  artists  ,  that  those  so-called  patriots 
who  wanted  to  revive  religious  persecutions  and 
civil  war,  are  not  worthy  to  be  called  French." 
Equally  admirable  are  the  paragraphs  in  which  are 
set  forth  all  the  political  catastrophes  which  in  the 
space  of  a  century — the  nineteenth — have  crushed 
France  more  than  any  other  country.  The  pupils 
-73  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

are  told  to  "  profit  by  these  national  misfortunes  ; 
to  realize  not  only  the  exceptional  qualities  of  the 
French  race,  but  also  its  defects,  so  that  they  may 
become  more  clear-sighted  than  past  generations 
and  so  avoid  the  return  of  such  ills."  Gold- 
schmidt  sees,  in  the  copied  maxim  written  at  the 
head  of  the  chapter  on  lying,  a  paraphrase  of  the 
answer  given  by  Kant  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  when 
the  latter  made  the  philosopher  promise  to  refrain 
from  attacking  religion.  "  No  one  is  obliged  to 
say  all  he  thinks  ;  but  all  he  says  should  be  in  agree- 
ment with  his  thoughts." 

Finally  the  first  lesson  of  1910 — commencing  with 
these  words  "  The  conscience  is  the  code  of  moral 
law  " — is  followed  by  a  dictation  which,  according 
to  the  German  critic,  is  a  masterpiece  of  enlightened 
and  just  exposition  of  the  "  Categorical  Impera- 
tive." "  The  simple  village  schoolmaster  exhibits 
therein  a  loftiness  which  shames  the  most  subtle 
philosophers." 

In  short,  Goldschmidt  is  full  of  enthusiasm  for 
the  contents  of  the  notebooks  ;  for  the  lessons  on 
morals  and  civics  which  the  French  elementary 
schoolmaster  showers  on  the  little  girls.  He  would 
like  to  quote  them  all.  But,  do  you  believe  that  he 
is  capable  of  recognizing  loyally  and  without  reserve 
all  the  merit  of  this  unrivalled  teacher  ?  Or  of 
admitting  that  possibly  other  French  teachers  give 
the  same  noble  lessons  ?  It  is  certain  that  it  passed 
through  his  mind  to  ask  himself  whether  such  a  moral 
~74  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  civic  instruction  was  not  that  which  Republican 
France  gave  to  all  her  children  ,  but  he  immediately 
dismissed  the  thought. 

Herr  Goldschmidt  is  German,  and  as  such,  from  the 
natural  trend  of  his  mind,  likes  to  admire  a  particu- 
lar case.  But  his  "  science  "  does  not  allow  him 
even  to  suppose  that  there  are  other  similar  cases 
in  France,  or  to  allow  that  this  "  lofty  "  instruction 
is  "  French."  This  ''  Village  Socrates "  could 
never  have  learnt  at  a  French  training  college,  or 
borrowed  from  a  French  manual,  the  lessons  which 
he  dictates  !  He  sums  up  his  conviction  in  these 
words  : — "  All  that  is  to  be  found  in  these  notebooks, 

is  too  characteristic  of  an  individual  to  be  attri- 

m 

buted  to  general  instruction." 

It  is  evident  that  Herr  Goldschmidt  of  Gotha  knows 
neither  the  French  manual  nor  the  directions  issued 
by  their  Minister  of  Education.  He  is  equally 
unaware  of  the  tiresome  but  salutary  disputes  which 
have  arisen  in  connexion  with  the  manuals  of  moral 
instruction.  If  he  had  known,  he  would  have  been 
only  too  happy  to  have  used  them  as  arguments 
against  the  French.  No,  his  reasons  for  refusing 
to  allow  them  any  merit  are  entirely  different : 
"  How  can  the  French  and  the  English  dare  to  refer 
the  Germans  to  Kant's  theories  of  human  dignity 
and  moral  duty,  seeing  that  they  themselves  have 
lost  all  idea  of  the  one  and  the  other !  If  Kant — 
a  German — was  able  to  rise  to  such  noble  concep- 
tions, the  German  people,  and  they  alone,  have 
—  75  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

them,  so  to  speak,  bred  in  their  blood.  Have 
not  the  French  and  the  English  constantly  since 
the  outbreak  of  war,  violated  the  rights  of  Man 
by  their  campaign  of  lies ;  by  the  proscription  of 
the  scholars  affiliated  to  their  societies,  etc.  etc/* 

On  the  cover  of  one  of  the  note  books  an  harangue 
against  strikes — but  "  naturally  in  favour  of  French 
industry  " — is  printed. 

The  schoolmaster  is  a  good  patriot,  but  France 
is  governed  by  a  set  of  Chauvinists.  A  madman  has 
assassinated  the  only  man  in  France  who  was  not 
persuaded  of  the  "justice  of  a  war  of  revenge." 
France  has  sought  and  let  loose  War  in  order  to 
have  her  revenge.  The  English  and  the  French  lie 
when  they  pretend  that  they  have  been  forced  to 
wage  war.  It  is  all  very  well  for  the  French  school- 
master to  say  to  his  little  French  scholars  in  his 
lessons  on  History  :  "  Let  us  profit  by  our  misfor- 
tunes to  make  us  better,"  and  to  proclaim  in  his 
talk  on  War  :  "  Every  war  is  a  monstrous  iniquity," 
or  again  :  "  One  of  the  greatest  crimes  is  to  kill  or 
mutilate  a  nation.  France  has  not  become  any 
better.  Has  she  not  baptized  one  of  her  men-of- 
war  The  Revenge  ?  "  She  has  always  and  ceaselessly 
engendered  hate  of  the  German  in  the  minds  of  her 
youth."  The  good  critic  concludes :  "  Has  the 
unfortunate  country  but  this  one  man  (the  school- 
master of  the  little  village  on  the  Meuse)  with  an 
untainted  mind  ?  Jaures,  the  enemy  of  re- 
venge and  this  schoolmaster,"  he  says,  "  accuse 

-76- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

France.  On  the  other  hand  the  German  Emperor 
has  proclaimed  :  We  seize  the  sword  with  a  clean 
hand,  etc.  etc.  There  is  the  truth." 

It  is  thus  that  an  intelligent  German  avoids  facts  ! 
He  has  before  his  eyes  the  material  proof  of  a  moral 
and  civic  instruction  of  which  he  is  forced  to  admire 
the  peaceful,  human  and  nobly  philosophical  char- 
acter. He  protests  with  his  purest  scientific  sin- 
cerity, but  he  is  unable  to  prevent  himself  from 
making  science  lie,  and  from  disfiguring  truth. 
A  singular  state  of  mind  which  can  neither  be  ex- 
plained nor  excused  by  warlike  Hypnosis.  It  would 
be  wronging  Herr  Goldschmidt  to  think  that  he  was 
alone  in  this  view.  Only  too  many  of  his  "  scien- 
tific "  compatriots  have  the  same  mental  outlook. 
These  vain  Pharisees  have  compromised  for  all 
time  the  probity  and  good  name  of  German  science, 
because  they  have  disdained  the  moral  lessons  of 
their  great  philosophers.  For  science  also  has  need 
of  moral  force  to  protect  herself  against  the  errors 
of  passion  and  prejudice. 

The  homage  done  by  a  "  scientific  "  German  to 
an  unknown  French  schoolmaster  should  not  be 
displeasing  to  the  French. 

Herr  Goldschmidt  could  have  found  thousands  of 
similar  notebooks  at  the  London  Exhibition  in 
1908  and  in  Brussels  in  1910.  The  moral  and  civic 
instruction  of  the  teacher  on  the  banks  of  the  Meuse 
is  that  of  all  the  French  elementary  schools. 
Goldschmidt  can  strongly  recommend  it  to  his 
-77  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

compatriots.  It  has  been  found  by  the  French  to 
be  good,  and  they  are  determined  to  continue  it. 

Herr  Goldschmidt,  of  Gotha,  little  thought,  when 
he  published  his  article,  of  the  startling  refutation 
which  he  gives  not  only  to  the  German  thesis  of 
France  athirst  for  revenge,  seeking  and  provoking 
war ;  but  to  all  the  insidious  calumnies  which  the 
Germans  have  spread  about  the  French  decadence 
and  their  moral  rottenness. 

At  the  end  of  the  war,  they  will  perhaps  realize 
how  they  have  been  deceived  as  to  the  real  value 

of  the  French  morale,  and  their  own. 
*  *  * 

What  has  become  of  this  innate  morality  of  France's 
presumptuous  neighbours  ?  This  "  colossal  "  war 
should  have  given  them  an  unparalleled  opportun- 
ity of  proving  it  to  the  sceptic  and  jealous  "  deca- 
dents." The  pitiful  exploits  of  their  army — "  the 
best  disciplined  in  the  world  " — have  edified  the 
world  at  large  on  this  point.  "  It  is  War,"  they  say. 
No,  it  is  not  the  intoxication  of  battle  : — the  cruel 
necessity  of  hand-to-hand  fighting  which  has  driven 
the  soldiers  of  William  II  to  dishonour  themselves 
for  all  time.  Those  in  the  rear,  the  recruits  of 
to-morrow,  have  shown  themselves  in  their  own 
country,  especially  in  the  towns,  worthy  rivals  to 
their  elders.  Day  by  day,  the  war  has  shown  the 
inanity  of  the  "  fundamental "  morality  of  the 
Germans,  and  the  inefficacy  of  their  educational 
measures  to  cultivate  it. 


AS   A   WAR   NURSERY 

Whilst  France  and  England,  following  the  example 
of  the  American  juvenile  courts,  created  special 
courts  for  the  trial  of  young  offenders,  Germany 
contented  herself  with  introducing  into  her  Code 
certain  additional  paragraphs,  dealing  with  the 
repression  of  crime  amongst  minors.  School  dis- 
cipline and  the  various  societies  for  the  protection 
of  juveniles  were  relied  on,  rather  than  police  or- 
ganizations to  rescue  precocious  criminals.  These 
societies  have  increased  to  such  an  extent,  and  have 
shown  such  activity,  that  the  statistics  proving  that 
since  1906  the  number  of  juvenile  criminals  brought 
to  justice  has  steadily  decreased,  may  be  accepted 
as  correct.  Statistics  are,  however,  accommodating 
and  youthful  criminality  is  more  difficult  to  root 
out  than  illiteracy. l 

The  recrudescence,  since  the  early  days  of  the 
war,  has  been  so  sudden  and  so  disquieting  that  it 
has  been  impossible  to  hide  it.  The  newspapers  of 
every  shade  of  opinion  have  written  about  it  openly. 
They  felt  it  was  necessary  to  recognize  the  facts  and 
to  speak  of  them  frequently  ;  not  so  much  for  the 
purpose  of  pointing  out  their  true  causes,  as  to 
quiet  opinion  and  to  announce  that  efficacious 
measures  were  being  taken. 

1  The  Germans  claim  the  honour  of  having  the  lowest 
number  of  illiterates  with  the  colours  (about  0'2  per  cent.). 
From  the  prisoners'  letters  we  have  been  able  to  see,  it 
would  appear  that  the  "  examination  for  recruits  "  is  not 
very  exacting.  As  for  the  letters  written  by  the  working 
class  women,  the  French  workpeople  and  peasants  write 
more  easily  and  correctly. 

—  79  ~ 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

As  early  as  the  month  of  June  in  the  first  year  of 
the  war  at  the  approach  of  the  summer  holidays, 
the  Berliner  Tageblatt 1  gave  an  account  of  a  meeting 
of  the  benevolent  societies  of  the  Capita1  which 
had  been  summoned  at  the  Guild  Hall  of  Berlin  to 
discuss  the  best  means  of  keeping  the  scholars  off 
the  streets  during  the  time  when  the  schools  were 
closed.  It  was  then  that  the  full  scope  of  the  ill 
was  discovered.  The  boys  wandered  about  in 
the  streets  ;  went  to  cinematographs,  stole,  smoked, 
drank,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  various  forms  of 
debauchery  with  girls  of  their  own  age  (12  to  16  years). 
It  was  asserted  that  the  war  was  the  cause  of  this 
shameless  behaviour  :  the  authority  of  the  father 
—who  was  mobilized — was  lacking  and  the  mothers 
were  obliged  to  work  away  from  their  homes  or 
to  remain  weary  hours  before  the  shops  in  order 
to  obtain  provisions.  Warlike  enthusiasm  had 
"  turned  the  young  brains."  The  headmaster  of 
one  school  stated  that  during  the  first  weeks  of  the 
war  1,500  elementary  schoolmasters  in  Berlin  had 
been  called  to  the  colours  :  the  women  teachers  who 
took  their  places  had  not  sufficient  power ;  these 
facts  made  the  children  irregular  and  restless : 
moreover  many  of  the  school  buildings  were  occu- 
pied by  the  troops  :  the  instruction  was  upset  by 
the  change  of  masters  (one  class  had  as  many  as 
six  in  eight  weeks) ;  by  the  grouping  of  classes 
owing  to  the  lack  of  masters  ;  by  the  frequent 
June  25,  1915. 
-So- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

collections    and    by    war    work    of  all  sorts,   etc. 

What  was  to  be  done  ?  The  societies  arranged 
playing  fields,  organized  excursions  and  opened 
workshops.  The  children,  however,  preferred  the 
street.  The  holidays  ended,  the  Central  Society 
for  the  Protection  of  Young  People  could  only 
acknowledge  the  increase  of  the  ill.  Stringent 
measures  were  asked  for. 

At  another  conference,  on  February  4,  1916,  held 
this  time  in  the  Prussian  Upper  House,  sad  details 
were  disclosed.1 

The  band  of  youthful  hooligans  numbered  in  its 
ranks  double  the  number  of  boys  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  years  of  age  than  of  older  or  younger 
children  ;  and  they  were  not  all  children  of  the  work- 
ing classes.  Certain  orators  tried  to  excuse  these 
errors  of  youth  by  the  need  of  activity  :  by  the 
instinct  of  liberty,  by  the  craving  for  adventure, 
unchained  by  the  "  glorious  "  war  ;  by  mischievous 
books,  etc. 

The  specialists  were  of  a  different  opinion.  Accord- 
ing to  them,  very  few  cases  were  due  to  hereditary 
or  psychological  tendencies.  They  discovered  the 
cause  in  the  influence  of  the  home  surroundings 
and  in  the  lack  of  education. 

The  statistics  given  by  the  organizations  whose 

1  Vossische  Zeitung,  January  13  and  February  5,  1916. 
Berliner  Tageblatt,  January  14,  February  17,  and  March 
18,  1916.  Tagliche  Rundschau,  February  5,  1916.  Koln- 
ische  Zeitung,  February  5,  1916. 

—  81  —  F 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

duty  it  is  to  repress  juvenile  crime,  and  by  the  very 
numerous  benevolent  societies  for  the  protection 
of  the  young  which  help  them  in  their  work,  had 
led  one  to  think  that  the  year  1906,  with  55,270 
cases  brought  before  the  courts,  created  a  maxi- 


mum. 


The  decrease  after  1906  is  probably  accounted 
for  by  a  more  exact  differentiation  between  crimes 
and  small  offences,  and  infringement  of  regulations 
which  had  been  made,  so  as  not  to  send  to  the 
courts  those  cases  which  could  be  dealt  with  by  the 
benevolent  societies  for  the  protection  of  youth. 
These  cases  were  not  registered  any  more  after  1906. 
If  the  authorized  estimate  of  M.  von  Liszt z  is  to  be 
accepted  three  out  of  every  four  of  the  children 
charged  are  saved  from  appearing  before  the  magis- 
trates. On  the  other  hand  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  principle  of  compulsory  education  very 
strictly  applied  throughout  Germany  had  been 
extended  in  1906  to  the  continuation  schools  ;  that 
is  to  say  that  many  children  remained  till  16,  17 
and  even  18  years  old  under  school  discipline.  If, 
nevertheless,  the  relaxation  of  supervision  in  the 
few  months  of  war  had  produced  this  surprising 

1  3Q>I79  cases  in  1882  ;    42,485  cases  in  1892  ;    51,000 
cases  in  1902  in  Prussia  alone.     After  1906  these  figures  de- 
cline.    In  the  last  two  quarters  of  1914  and  1915,  however, 
the  figures  for  Berlin  alone  were  240  : — 330  and  612  : — 1034 
respectively. 

2  Berliner  Tageblatt,   January  14,   1916,  second  supple- 
ment. 

—  82  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  distressing  criminality  in  these  children,  it  proved 
that  neither  the  school,  with  its  innumerable 
auxiliary  and  complementary  works,  nor  the  judi- 
cial and  protective  organizations  were  sufficient 
to  have  the  upper  hand,  in  a  lasting  manner,  over 
the  instincts  of  the  race. 

This  fact  is  realized  in  Germany.  The  Frank- 
furter Zeitung  considered  it  politic  to  publish  an 
important  leading  article  on  this  question.1  The 
big  Liberal  and  Democratic  paper  wishes  to  put  the 
people  on  guard  against  the  alarmist  exaggerations 
and  brutal  measures  for  repression.  "  Fortun- 
ately the  situation  is  not  of  this  gravity ;  it  would 
be  curious  if  it  were  otherwise  and  if  the  moral 
forces  existing  in  the  German  people  had  suddenly 
lost  all  their  influence  on  the  youth  of  the  coun- 
try." The  journalist  does  not  attempt  to  deny  the 
fact  of  the  moral  decadence  of  the  youth.  He  in- 
deed admits  that  neither  at  school  nor  at  home  has 
sufficient  been  done  to  prevent  it.  The  war  has 
caused  a  scourge  to  break  forth  which  has  been 
germinating  for  a  long  time  and  which  has  its  origin 
in  the  "  exaggerated  and  ever  growing  subjec- 
tivism "  of  present  day  Germany.  The  "  good  old- 
fashioned  obedience  "  and  parental  authority  have 
everywhere  given  way  before  the  idea  of  greater 
freedom  and  a  more  complete  individual  independ- 
ence of  the  younger  generation.  The  discipline 
which  is  able  to  reconcile  this  obedience  to  the 
1  February  5,  1916. 

-83- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

irresistible  need  of  liberty  created  by  modern  life 
has  not  yet  been  discovered.  Whilst  waiting  for 
the  time  after  the  war,  when  this  "  all-important 
problem "  will  be  fully  studied,  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitung  can  only  commend  the  intervention  of  the 
supreme  military  authorities  who  apply  the  rigours 
of  a  state  of  siege  equally  to  children  as  to  those  who 
contribute  to  corrupt  them. 

The  admission  is  embarrassed  but  it  is  complete. 
The  moral  crisis  of  the  German  youth  is  general.  It 
has  broken  out  on  account  of  the  war  naturally 
with  more  violence  in  the  large  centres  than  else- 
where. The  actual  evolution  of  German  society 
can — nay  must — be  regarded  as  aetiology.  It 
remains  to  be  explained  why  this  evolution  has 
taken  place  at  the  expense  of  morality.  It  has  been 
established  that  pedagogy  has  failed  in  its  efforts 
to  prevent  the  crisis.  This  fact  proves  that  peda- 
gogy had  not  the  necessary  means  of  action.  In 
other  words  the  moral  instruction  is  insufficient, 
or  bad. 

The  Frankfurter  Zeitung  asserts,  without  giving 
the  proof,  that  it  is  the  same  with  other  nations, 
but  it  adds,  "  the  Germans  have  the  good  habit  of 
not  allowing  such  things  quietly  to  follow  their 
course."  Indeed  the  Government  does  not  seem  at 
all  inclined  to  allow  the  pedagogues  and  the  societies 
for  the  protection  of  the  young  alone  to  arrange  the 
problem  of  moral  education.  The  generals  com- 
manding districts  and  the  civil  authorities  have 
-84- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

intervened.  The  former  have  acted,  rather  than 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior  and  the  municipalities, 
with  a  heavy  hand.  The  General  who  commands  at 
Cassel  regards  all  young  people  under  18  years  old 
as  persons  to  be  watched  ;  and  he  punishes  offenders 
with  fines  up  to  £5  or  with  imprisonment  up  to  one 
year.  It  might  be  a  dream  :  a  general  deciding 
that  smoking,  loitering  in  the  streets,  going  to 
cinemas  or  to  cafes  without  being  properly  accom- 
panied are  offences  requiring  serious  punishment 
in  a  young  man  who,  as  soon  as  he  is  18  years  old, 
will  go  to  the  Front,  who  earns  his  own  livelihood  and 
sometimes  that  of  his  relations,  who  is  a  student, 
or  a  cadet  officer,  denotes  a  usurpation  of  sphere 
and  a  contempt  for  individual  liberty  which  promises 
disagreeable  surprises  for  the  German  citizens,  as 
soon  as  the  state  of  siege  is  ended.  The  same 
general  has  also  decreed  that  no  workman  under 
21  years  of  age  may  receive  his  wages  himself, 
but  must  have  them  collected  by  a  person  of  trust.1 
It  is  true  that  in  certain  towns  the  age  limit  of 


1  The  General  who  commands  at  Brandenburg,  consider- 
ing that  the  young  workmen  earn  too  much,  forces  the 
masters  only  to  pay  them  a  part  of  their  wages,  putting 
the  remainder  in  the  savings  bank.  At  this  time  of  loans 
compulsory  saving  (Sparzwang)  can  be  defended.  The 
eagerness  of  the  populace  to  "  sacrifice  all  on  the  altar  of 
the  Fatherland  "  ill  withstands,  so  it  appears,  the  length 
of  the  trial.  The  restrictive  and  coercive  measures  taken 
to  stimulate  it  are  no  longer  of  any  importance  in  Germany. 

-85- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

"  youth  "  is  1 6  years  old.     There  is  no  need  to 
labour  the  point. 

A  certain  German  opinion  has  arisen  from  this 
brutal  interference  of  the  military  authorities  in 
the  sphere  of  pedagogy.  Several  liberal-minded 
thinkers  have  drawn  attention  to  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  offences  punished  are  of  the  number  of  those 
which  there  would  be  no  idea  of  referring  to  the  police 
in  other  civilized  countries.  They  have  opposed  the 
idea  of  immediately  passing  a  special  law  "  to  pro- 
tect the  youth  of  the  country."'  The  measures 
established  before  the  war  seem  to  them  amply 

sufficient. 

*  *  * 

That  the  state  of  war  has  brought  to  light  a  deplor- 
able moral  state  of  the  German  youth  is  denied  by  no 
one.  Thenceforward  it  will  be  useless  for  the  Ger- 
man pedagogues  to  boast  of  the  inborn  morality 
of  their  race,  and  of  the  excellence  of  their  educa- 
tional methods — no  one  will  believe  them.  There 
is  something  changed  in  the  Germans  since  Bis- 
marck's day ;  and  France,  so  decried  by  them, 
gives  them  to-day  a  proud  answer. 

The  German  "  subjectivism,"  if  there  is  any, 
cannot  be  superior  to  the  "  subjectivism  "  of  Eng- 
land and  France ;  but  whilst  in  England  and 
France  it  is  cultivated  and  directed  with  respect, 
German  pedagogy  does  nothing  but  fetter  it  with 
the  discipline  of  another  age. 

One  of  the  most  dauntless  critics  of  school  peda- 
—  86  — 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

gogy  as  actually  practised  in  Germany,  the  "  revo- 
lutionary "  pedagogue  Dr.  G.  Wynecken,  sees  in 
the  present  events  a  peremptory  justification  of 
his  principles  for  radical  educational  reform.  In 
his  "  Thoughts  on  the  Education  of  the  Young  " 
he  goes  so  far  as  to  declare  the  family,  the  State  and 
the  Church  are  all  equally  incapable  of  educating 
the  young  for  the  good  of  the  general  community. 
According  to  him  the  war  has  shown  of  what  youth 
is  capable,  if  the  yoke  of  superannuated  and  con- 
ventional tutelage  were  removed.  Youth  should 
be  admired  and  trusted,  and  not  constantly  har- 
assed with  mistrusting  persecution.  Children  need 
guides  and  comrades,  not  jailers.  The  mechanical 
methods  of  the  classroom  and  external  military 
discipline,  which  only  create  indifferent  and  irre- 
sponsible beings,  are  repulsive  to  their  natural  love 
of  liberty  and  action.  The  master,  the  friend  and 
not  the  dictator  of  the  class.  The  master  and 
scholars  should  be  united  by  a  bond  of  mutual 
responsibility.  It  is  the  moment  to  study  youth 
and  to  cease  ruling  the  scholars  with  the  rod.1 

Dr.  Wynecken  is  convinced  that  a  new  school, 
the  autonomous  school — will  arise  from  these  "  sub- 
jective "  ideas.  The  masters  will  be  men  who  see 
in  education  their  vocation ;  whilst  business  men 
will  be  called  in  to  give  practical  instruction.  In 
associating  with  the  children  they  will  create  a 

1  Academische  Rundschau,  June,  1915-  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  June  14,  1915- 

-87- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

kind  of  brotherhood  for  the  common  good.  Educa- 
tion has  no  other  end  than  to  render  the  youth  of 
a  country  able  to  fulfil  all  the  present  and  future 
needs  :  in  other  words  to  create  strong,  active  and 
useful  members  of  the  Fatherland.  This  education 
has  neither  need  of  antiquity  nor  of  an  historical 
past.  Useless  torturing  of  the  mind  by  the  formal- 
ism of  "  dead  things  "  is  abhorrent  to  it ;  it  lives 
in  and  for  the  future. l 

It  is  hardly  probable  that  the  "  activism  "  of  a 
Wynecken  and  "  subjectivism "  will  outweigh 
"  militarism  "  or,  if  this  word  shocks,  the  peda- 
gogy of  discipline  and  subordination  in  Germany. 
Without  doubt,  when  the  war  has  ended,  the  an- 
tithesis between  the  pedagogy,  generally  speaking 
humanitarian  and  the  utilitarian,  and  political 
pedagogy,  will  have  lost  much  of  its  acuteness. 
The  frenzy  of  the  first  months  has  passed  away. 
The  duration  of  the  war,  the  enormous  sacrifice  of 
human  lives,  the  economic  difficulties,  and  the 

1  Without  going  to  such  extremes  certain  Socialists  want 
the  German  school  to  be  a  "  school  of  '  Kultur  '  "  (Kul- 
twschule)  freed  from  the  bondage  of  the  past,  which  poisons 
the  best  years  of  youth  ;  and  independent  of  historical 
thought.  It  will  not  be  a  school  of  preparation  for  the 
struggle  for  existence,  but  it  will  make  the  youth  of  the 
country  capable  of  fighting  for  the  right,  and  it  will  make 
the  young  strong  for  the  efficient  action  called  for  by  the 
realities  of  life.  This  is  the  idea  expounded  by  Dr.  Kurt 
Hiller  in  a  lecture  delivered  at  the  Free  Association  of  stu- 
dents for  social  action  at  Berlin  (Vossische  Zeitung,  June 
29,  1915)- 

—  88  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

anxiety  with  regard  to  the  questions  after  the  war, 
which  to  certain  people  appear  less  and  less  like  the 
limitless  exploitation  of  the  overwhelming  victory, 
have  calmed  many  pedagogic  ambitions  and  led 
the  controversy  to  more  reasonable  questions  (which 
have  possibilities  of  realization). 

The  hold  of  politics  on  German  schools  is,  how- 
ever, of  long  date  and  strong.  An  entire  change, 
taking  into  consideration  the  new  factors,  is  neces- 
sary if  they  are  to  be  freed  from  its  sway.  In 
Germany  they  are  beginning  to  realize  this  fact  and 
they  publicly  proclaim,  in  order  to  achieve  their 
end,  a  moral  and  civic  instruction,  based  on  the 
principles  of  the  great  thinkers  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  German  officer  who  stole  the  notebooks  from 
the  little  French  village  school  on  the  banks  of  the 
Meuse  would  be  readily  forgiven  if  they  could  but 
point  out  to  the  Germans  the  path  to  be  followed. 


-89- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  "  Einheitsschule  " 

IN  Germany  primary  instruction  is  given  in 
"  popular "  schools,  and  secondary  instruc- 
tion in  "  higher  "  schools.  These  two  classes  of 
education  have  each  followed  their  own  line  of 
development,  and  up  to  the  present  no  effort  to 
unite  them  has  succeeded  even  to  the  point  of 
drawing  them  nearer  to  each  other. 

The  "  popular  "  school  has  shown  itself  worthy 
of  the  care  which  successive  Governments  have 
expended  on  it.  It  has  rendered  valuable  services 
to  the  State.  The  victories  of  1866  and  1870  were 
attributed  to  the  German  schoolmaster.  Even  to- 
day he  is  represented  as  marching  at  the  head  of  the 
nation.1  The  primary  curriculum  having  been 
augmented  by  higher  courses  of  study,  and  by  a 
whole  system  of  compulsory  "  improvements,"  the 
primary  school  has  become  ambitious.  Not  only 
is  it  jealous  of  the  excessive  privileges  kept  for 
secondary  instruction,  but  from  being  a  people's 
school  it  would  like  to  become  the  fundamental 

1  See  above,  p.  29,  note. 
—  90  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

school  of  the  entire  nation  (allgemeine  Volkes-  und 
Gmndschule) . 

If  we  turn  to  secondary  education  we  shall  see 
that  the  classical  gymnasium  was  forced  in  the 
second  half  of  the  last  century  to  tolerate  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  rival  on  its  domain,  till  then  a  holy 
of  holies  :  this  rival  was  the  semi-classical  second- 
ary, or  first-grade  school  (Realgymnasium)  which 
still  retains  Latin,  but  replaces  Greek  by  modern 
languages  and  by  scientific  teaching  of  a  more 
thorough  and  extensive  kind ;  then  there  is  the 
Realschule  pure  and  simple,  a  non-classical  second- 
ary school,  of  higher  and  lower  grade,  which  pro- 
vides an  entirely  modern  course  of  study,  and  which 
in  its  lower  classes  borders  upon  the  higher  primary 
school,  without  however  desiring  to  become  one 
with  it.  At  the  time  of  the  conferences  of  1890  and 
1900,  the  Emperor  thought  he  ought  to  sanction 
the  technical  or  modern  movement  favoured  by 
manufacturing  and  commercial  Germany ;  he 
therefore  declared  its  cultural  work  to  be  equivalent 
to  that  of  the  classical  humanities.  But  his  inter- 
vention did  not  get  the  mastery  over  tradition. 
The  classical  gymnasium,  restored  to  itself,  always 
defended  and  still  defends  its  rank  and  privileges. 

At  a  time  when  the  diplomas  of  its  rivals  open  to 
youth  the  higher  studies  and  the  so-called  liberal 
professions,  but  with  restrictions  and  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  classical  studies  on  the  other  hand 
lead  up  to  everything  without  reserve  of  any  kind 
—  91  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

or  sort.  The  Universities,  strongly  riveted  to  the 
Government  but  autonomous  enough  in  themselves, 
continue  to  protect  the  classical  gymnasium  against 
the  oft-repeated  and  violent  attacks  of  its  rivals 
and  of  a  certain  section  of  public  opinion.  Bour- 
geois families,  officials  and  the  military  obviously 
prefer  the  "  gymnasium."  The  latter  has  even 
managed  to  maintain,  in  Prussia  at  least,  its  own 
"  preparatory  classes  "  to  save  its  clientele  from 
the  mixing  in  the  primary  school,  and  from  the 
inconvenience  of  passing  from  one  mode  of  teach- 
ing to  another. 

*  *  * 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  after  the  scholastic 
struggles  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
up  to  the  time  of  the  war.  The  bulk  of  the  army, 
the  privates,  are  primary  scholars.  On  January 
i,  1916,  more  than  fifty  thousand  elementary 
teachers  had  been  mobilized  or  had  enlisted ; 
more  than  six  thousand  masters,  and  more  than  a 
fifth  of  the  students  of  the  training  colleges  and 
candidates  had  fallen.1  The  privilege,  not  long 
before  conferred  on  teachers,  of  performing  their 
military  service  as  volunteers  for  one  year,  had 
remained  a  dead  letter ;  few  have  been  able  to 
break  through  the  barrier  with  which  the  entire 
body  of  officers  hedges  round  its  caste.  In  the 
present  war  teachers  have  only  made  good  non- 
commissioned officers  and  good  soldiers.  On  the 
1  See  above,  p.  39 
—  92  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

other  hand  the  masters  in  secondary  schools  are  all 
officers  in  the  reserve  ;  the  students  having  finished 
their  military  service  of  one  year  are  at  the  least 
cadets  ;  and  the  pupils  from  the  gymnasia  and  the 
non-classical  secondary  schools  who  have  enlisted 
as  volunteers,  have  been  favoured  with  the  certifi- 
cate which  clears  the  way  to  the  rank  of  volunteer 
and  gives  them  the  best  chance  of  rising  from  the 
ranks  without  a  hitch. 

Have  the  trenches  brought  together  primary 
and  secondary  pupils  to  such  a  point  as  to  put  an 
end  at  last  to  the  water-tight  partitions  between 
the  two  types  of  teaching  ?  Or  have  the  secondary 
pupils  justified,  by  their  incapacity,  or  by  their 
capacity,  the  universal  distrust  against  the  educa* 
tion  which  has  shaped  them  ? 

Allusion  will  presently  be  made  to  a  letter,  writ- 
ten in  the  trenches  by  the  head-master  of  a  gymna- 
sium, containing  such  a  sweeping  condemnation  of 
classical  studies,  his  own  department,  that  it  pro- 
voked a  storm  of  protests  even  outside  the  camp  of 
the  active  partisans  of  Greek  and  Latin.  Other 
members  of  the  educational  community  may  also 
have  recorded  their  experiences  while  in  the  field. 
They  will  have  drawn  inferences  on  the  reforms  to 
be  effected  in  the  education  of  future  generations 
and  deduced  certain  social  principles  whose  equality 
in  the  presence  of  duty,  danger,  or  the  election  of 
leaders,  etc.,  will  have  suggested  to  them  the  line 
to  be  followed  in  the  future. 

—  93  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

But  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  contro- 
versy on  the  "  Unitaire  "  primary  school  was  re- 
kindled by  persons  not  at  the  Front.  The  vital 
importance  of  the  struggle,  the  social  phenomena 
taking  place  before  their  eyes,  the  anxieties  which 
will  face  Germany  after  the  war,  and  above  all  the 
steps  taken  by  the  Government  profoundly  to 
modify  the  existing  organization  of  schools — all 
these  circumstances  were  certainly  more  than 
enough  to  call  into  play  the  critical  judgment  of  the 
pedagogues  and  politicians  still  living  in  their 
homes.  The  few  comments  from  the  Front  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge  have  been  suggested  to 
their  authors  by  the  perusal  of  the  newspapers.  We 
know  that  the  "  men  in  grey  "  at  the  Front  have 

been  overwhelmed  with  periodicals. 
*  *  * 

We  have  already  seen  that  under  cover  of  the 
Defence  of  the  Realm  the  uniform  military  prepara- 
tion of  young  Germans  has  for  its  aim  the  central- 
ization of  the  empire  founded  upon  the  army.  As 
the  preponderating  share  is  to  be  taken  by  the 
schools  in  this  irresistible  influence,  was  it  not  a 
unique  occasion  to  attempt  a  radical  remodelling 
of  public  education  in  Germany,  in  such  a  way 
that  all  the  youth  of  the  empire  should  hencefor- 
'  ward  receive  the  same  primary,  fundamental  and 
national  education  ?  Such  is  the  idea  embodied 
in  the  Nationale  Einheitsschule  and  of  the  Deutsche 
Grundschule. 

—  94  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

This  idea  of  a  primary  school  (in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word)  unique  and  common  to  all  children 
without  distinction  of  social  rank,  is  not  new  in 
Germany.  For  instance,  this  idea  has  been  realized 
in  Bavaria,  under  the  name  of  the  universal  people's 
school  (Allgemeine  Volksschule).  During  the  first 
four  years  of  compulsory  school  life,  all  children, 
whether  of  Ministers  of  State  or  of  workmen,  are 
obliged  to  attend  the  public  primary  school,  at  all 
events  in  theory.  It  has  not  been  proved  that 
free  education  has  profited  by  this  to  the  detriment 
of  the  officially  recognized  schools.  No  injury  has 
been  caused  either  to  the  secondary  or  to  the  primary 
system,  whether  "  middle  "  or  "  higher." 

The  Einheitsschule  tends  to  the  same  ends  as  the 
Allgemeine  Volksschule  but  its  object  is  more  clearly 
defined.  It  is  an  equally  ancient  conception.  It 
is  the  outcome  of  the  conception  of  a  homogeneous 
system  merging  into  a  single  organism  the  divers 
orders  of  public  education.  To  this  homogeneous 
structure  it  is  expedient  to  have  a  common  ground- 
floor  (einheitlicher  Unterbau).  Into  this  ground- 
floor  all  pupils  would  enter,  and  there  they  would 
sojourn ;  some  would  return  to  ordinary  life  after 
a  course  of  six,  seven  or  eight  years,  and  others 
would  mount  to  the  upper  stories.  But  all  the 
German  states  have  not  yet  been  able  to  construct 
a  building  thus  arranged.  The  three  orders  have 
grown  up  independently  of  one  another,  sometimes 
even  to  their  mutual  detriment,  so  much  so  that 
—  95  - 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

attempts  to  draw  them  together  have  been  brought 
up  short  by  impassable  partitions  that  nothing 
seems  able  to  throw  down.  The  uncompromising 
attitude  of  the  academic  parties  sometimes  verges 
upon  open  hostility.  We  have  heard  supporters 
of  the  primary  system  utter  this  party  cry,  "  Primary 
education  for  primary  scholars/'  and  we  have 
heard  them  insist  on  the  self-government  of  all 
primary  schools  of  whatever  kind.  Then  again 
University  professors  have  dared  to  describe  as 
"  barbarian  hordes  "  those  teachers  who  demanded 
the  right  to  be  prepared  for  their  future  functions 
in  the  Universities.1 

f  At  the  present  moment  Prussia,  the  leading 
state  of  Germany,  has  not  yet  succeeded  in  passing 
the  comprehensive  organic  law  on  public  education 
as  a  whole,  which  had  been  prepared  for  more  than 
a  century  and  was  regarded  as  the  carrying  out  of 

[the  constitution.  Is  Prussia  disposed  at  least  to 
realize  the  partial  progress  that  has  been  made  in 
the  direction  by  Saxony,  Bavaria  and  the  Duchy 
of  Baden,  among  others,  by  declaring  the  compul- 
sory primary  school  common  to  all  children  ? 

Now,  before  the  attainment  of  the  organic  unity 
of  public  education,  admitting  of  close  relations 
between  the  different  orders  and  contriving  natural 

1  See  La  preparation  professionnelle  des  instituteurs  dans 
les  universites  in  La  pedagogie  dans  les  pays  etrangers,  by 
V.  H.  Friedel  (Paris,  published  by  G.  Roustan,  1910  ; 
P-  J34)- 

-96- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

transitions,  as  it  were,  from  one  order  to  the  other, 
an  Einheitsschule  as  foundation  of  the  system  is 
impossible.  This  rule  applies  to  each  of  the  Ger- 
man states  taken  individually.  It  is  even  more 
true  that  the  realization  of  the  deutsche  Grund- 
schule,  the  fundamental  and  national  school  for  the 
whole  of  the  imperial  confederation,  can  only  be- 
long to  the  distant  future.  Should  it  ever  become 
an  accomplished  fact,  the  present  war  would  only 
mark  the  first  stage  of  the  reform  movement. 


Let  us  confine  ourselves  exclusively  for  the 
moment  to  the  Einheitsschule.  The  question  has 
two  aspects.  It  is  at  the  same  time  pedagogic  and 
socio-political.  But  as  pedagogy  has  no  value 
except  in  so  far  as  it  studies  and  works  for  human 
society  and  politics,  the  two  points  of  view  become 
blended.1 

The  shrewdest  among  the  pedagogues,  such  as 
W.  Rein,  who  quite  recently  has  broken  another 
lance  on  behalf  of  the  Einheitsschule,  have  been 
obliged  to  borrow  their  best  weapons  from  the  ar- 
senal of  social  and  political  demands.  The  object 
for  which  they  are  fighting  is  equal  rights  in  respect 
of  instruction  and  education.  Every  child  has  the 
right  to  be  instructed  and  brought  up  according 

1  It  would  appear  that  the  partisans  of  the  Einheits- 
schule have  not  always  a  very  clear  notion  as  to  the  object 
of  their  demands. 

—  97  —  G 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

to  his  intellectual  and  moral  abilities.  It  is  "  peda- 
gogically  "  unjust  that  some  should  only  have  at 
their  disposal  a  small  primary  school,  while  the 
chances  of  fortune  or  of  birth  mark  out  others  for 
more  highly  privileged  schools.  It  is  not  true  that 
town-bred  children  are  more  highly  developed  than 
village  children,  nor  that  the  children  of  the  rich 
are  more  healthy  and  of  a  higher  moral  calibre  than 
those  brought  up  in  an  industrial  centre.  On  the 
contrary  if  this  is  really  observed  to  be  the  case 
these  apparent  differences  must  be  admitted  to 
be  the  result  of  an  unequal  distribution  of  instruc- 
tion and  education. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  difficulties  experienced 
by  even  the  capable  masters  in  blending  the  differ- 
ent individualities  of  a  class  so  as  to  make  them 
produce  good  work  in  common,  especially  at  the 
most  important  stage  of  their  work,  that  is  to  say, 
the  beginning.  The  weak  indulgence  as  to  the 
promotions  from  class  to  class,  the  delays  caused 
to  good  pupils  by  the  dunce  that  cannot  be  left 
behind,  in  a  word,  all  the  "pedagogic  injustices  " 
known  to  exist  in  the  present  organization — will 
not  all  these  be  lessened,  if  not  entirely  eliminated, 
when  all  children  are  taught  together  according  to 
the  same  scheme  and  by  the  same  methods  before 
entering,  some  on  ordinary  life  in  the  world,  others 
into  a  school  of  a  higher  grade  ?  And  as  competi- 
tion and  the  natural  esprit  de  corps  of  the  children 
are  of  such  powerful  pedagogic  value,  more  gener- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

ally  satisfactory  results  can  and  ought  to  be  obtained, 
especially  when  even  the  masters  themselves  feel 
encouraged  by  the  thought  that  they  are  in  truth 
the  educators  of  all  the  nation. 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  this  school  which 
will  be  at  once  unique  and  general  from  the  outset, 
will  break  down,  we  hope,  the  partitions  separating 
the  different  classes  of  society,  as  it  will  likewise 
abolish  those  erected  between  the  different  kinds  of 
education  :  it  will  carry  on  for  ever,  and  for  the 
greatest  good  of  the  country,  the  fusion  that  the 
war  has  effected  in  the  trenches.  After  the  blood- 
letting in  the  trenches,  the  country  will  be  in  need 
of  all  kinds  of  talents.  It  is  of  the  first  necessity 
that  no  one,  however  humble  his  origin,  should  ruin 
his  destiny  as  the  result  of  an  insufficient  or  un- 
attainable initiation  ;  nor  should  the  place  of  such 
a  one  be  taken  by  wealthy  or  well-born  incap- 
ables. 

It  is  with  these  arguments,  which  we  have  heard 
already,  and  to  which  the  war  has  added  an  incon- 
testable value,  that  W.  Rein  and  other  pedagogues, 
both  in  theory  and  in  practice,  attempt  to  back  up 
the  demands  of  the  Einheitsschule.  They  have  on 
their  side  an  imposing  majority  of  the  primary 
teaching  staff. 

At  the  last  congress  of  German  teachers  at  Eisenach 
(Whitsuntide,  1916)  the  question  of  the  Einheits- 
schule dominated  the  whole  discussion.  Herr  Tews, 
one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  Association 
—  99  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

of  German  Teachers,  and  one  listened  to  with  the 
utmost  attention,  had  paved  the  way  to  this 
discussion  by  a  pamphlet. 

The  four  hundred  and  seventy-six  delegates t 
representing  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thou- 
sand, four  hundred  and  three  teachers  (50  per  cent, 
had  been  mobilized)  were  invited  to  demand  the 
unitaire  school,  in  the  first  place,  for  "  ideal "  reasons, 
and  in  the  second  in  order  to  satisfy  professional  and 
political  interests.  For  a  long  time  teachers  have 
been  complaining  of  the  "  preparatory  classes," 
and  other  superfluous  institutions  which  carry  off 
the  "  good  "  pupils.  In  the  new  order  of  things 
which  will  follow  the  war,  the  functions  of  the 
teacher  will  be  essentially  important.  They  ought 
in  future  to  direct  their  efforts  to  the  setting  up  of 
the  unitaire  primary  school  to  a  still  greater  extent ; 
they  ought  to  aim  at  an  education  of  the  empire, 
directed  by  an  authority  of  the  empire.  This  is, 
we  see,  the  Einheitsschule  acting  as  the  bait  of 
,  the  unique  and  general,  fundamental  and  German 
primary  school  of  the  centralized  empire. 

The  female  teachers,  met  together  at  Hanover, 
stated  their  desires  with  more  subtlety  and  less 
political  mental  reservation.  They  gave  their 
assent  to  the  report  of  one  of  their  own  body  on  the 
necessity  of  transforming  the  primary  school  into 
a  school  of  the  intelligence  (Begabungsschule).  This 
is  another  way  of  justifying  the  institution  of  the 
common  school  by  making  it  necessary  to  pick  out 
—  100  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  encourage  the  most  highly  gifted  children  of 
the  lower  classes. 

*  *  * 

This  then  is  the  theory.  It  is  a  seductive  one 
by  reason  of  the  generous  and  humane  liberalism 
which  inspires  it.  How  will  it  be  in  practice  ? 

The  school  medical  officers,  who  in  Germany 
examine  each  child  on  its  entering  school  and  during 
its  school  life,  have  corroborated  a  discovery  which 
has  long  been  the  despair  of  all  conscientious  mas- 
ters, namely,  that  all  children  are  not  equally  fitted, 
either  physically  or  intellectually,  to  keep  up  with 
the  normal  programme  of  the  class  to  which  their 
age  assigns  them.  The  causes  of  this  unfitness  are 
many,  and  the  child  itself  has  no  control  over  them 
(heredity,  social  sphere,  etc.).  It  produces  re- 
sults from  which  the  child  is  the  first  to  suffer 
(overwork,  loss  of  time,  classes  to  be  gone  through 
again,  despondency,  etc.).  So  a  uniform  and  com- 
pulsory education  for  the  whole  scholastic  contin- 
gent is  therefore  a  pedagogic  absurdity. 

If  the  syllabus  is  kept  at  a  level  to  suit  the  aver- 
age child,  a  thing  not  always  easy  to  bring  about, 
one  runs  the  risk  of  injuring  the  more  gifted  chil- 
dren whose  upward  impetus  is  paralysed.  Only 
those  of  middling  powers  are  being  catered  for. 
The  least  capable  are  certain  to  be  failures.  Ulti- 
mately it  is  society  that  loses.  Society  does  not 
get  out  of  the  rising  generations  all  the  powers 
there  lying  dormant.  On  the  other  hand  it  sees 
—  10 1  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

on  an  increasing  scale  the  loss  caused  by  the  social 
non-productiveness  of  a  large  number  of  indivi- 
duals who,  with  pains  and  care  adapted  to  their 
natural  temperament,  might  have  been  able  to 
play  their  parts  on  the  stage  of  life  as  "  common 
useful  actors." 

It  is  in  order  to  obtain  in  pedagogy  more  phy- 
siological and  social  desiderata  that  round  the 
primary  school  have  been  created,  on  the  one  hand, 
classes  for  abnormal  and  backward  children  who 
have  not  been  able  to  keep  up  the  pace,  and  on  the 
other  hand  preparatory  classes  for  higher  instruc- 
tion. 

A  most  interesting  experiment  for  the  rational 
grouping  of  these  chapels  of  ease  within  the  national 
and  free  primary  schools  has  been  made  by  the 
town  of  Mannheim.  Herr  W.  Rein  has  instanced 
the  experiments  of  this  city  as  an  example  of  a 
unitaire  primary  school.  It  is  as  follows. 

At  the  age  of  six  all  children  whose  parents  wish 
to  make  use  of  the  public  free  primary  school  are 
registered  for  the  first  of  the  eight  ordinary  or  nor- 
mal classes.  Already  at  the  end  of  the  first  year 
a  selection  is  made.  The  children  in  permanent 
need  of  instruction  specially  adapted  to  them  will 
have  been  noted.  They  are  placed  in  the  classes 
known  as  "  auxiliary  "  (Hilfsklassen),  which  are 
classes  not  of  abnormals,  but  rather  of  the  back- 
ward children.  Teaching  in  them  is  confined  to 
four  grades.  It  only  includes  subjects  within  the 
—  102  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

capacity  of  these,  "  minus  habentes,"  who  are 
improvable  to  a  degree  which  will  be  useful  in  their 
future  way  of  life.  Little  theory  but  much  handwork 
and  practical  work  is  taught ;  general  work  is 
reduced. 

The  children  easily  improvable  by  a  temporary 
treatment  have  also  been  picked  out.  For  these 
Fordcrklassen  have  been  organized,  that  is  to 
say,  finishing  classes,  equal  to  the  normal  classes, 
beginning  from  the  second  year  and  consequently 
graduated  so  as  to  represent  six  or  seven  stages. 
They  are  provided  for  children  who  by  reason  of 
illness,  lassitude  or  any  other  fortuitous  cause  have 
momentarily  been  left  behind. 

Finally,  children  looked  upon  as  normal  follow 
the  ordinary  syllabus  in  the  classes  constituting 
the  groundwork  of  the  system. 

In  this  system  we  merely  see  the  rational  adapta- 
tion of  so-called  parallel  classes,  which  are  found 
necessary  in  all  over-populated  scholastic  groups. 
It  is  an  understood  thing  that  the  auxiliary  classes 
(Hilfsklassen),  with  their  special  syllabus,  their 
short  duration  and  their  special  staff  can  have  less 
interchange  with  the  finishing  classes  than  the 
latter  have  with  the  normal  classes.  A  "  back- 
ward "  child  does  not  go  through  his  classes  over 
again  with  children  younger  than  himself ;  this 
would  often  discourage  him  and  prevent  him  from 
making  up  for  lost  time.  He  passes  for  a  time  into 
the  finishing  class  corresponding  with  his  age  and 
—  103  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

rejoins  his  comrades  of  the  normal  grade  as  soon 
as  he  has  made  good  his  losses. 

In  this  manner  the  waste  proved  to  exist  in  the 
cut  and  dried  organization  of  education  in  common 
is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  the  pupils  give  the 
maximum  of  work  of  which  they  are  capable. 

On  the  other  hand,  really  gifted  and  capable 
children,  who  can  advance  further  than  the  ordin- 
ary stage,  are  not  riveted  irretrievably  to  the  nor- 
mal syllabus.  For  the  advantage  of  those  whose 
parents  mean  to  send  them  to  a  secondary  school, 
or  who  seem  likely  subjects  for  encouragement  to 
enter  such  a  school,  supplementary  classes  of 
"  preparation "  have  been  organized.  This  pre- 
paration holds  out  to  them  the  prospect  of  pre- 
senting themselves  at  the  regulation  age  of  nine 
for  the  examination  of  admission  to  any  classical 
gymnasium  or  semi-classical  school.  With  this 
end  in  view  the  preparation  will  have  brought  the 
child  up  to  the  standard  required  in  the  sixth  class 
of  those  establishments.  In  Baden,  this  type  of 
school  has  long  been  without  preparatory  classes. 
The  heads  of  secondary  establishments  have,  it 
seems,  given  a  welcome  to  pupils  thus  prepared 
by  teachers. 

In  like  manner,  there  have  been  grafted  on  to  the 
primary  classes  during  their  last  two  years  courses 
of  modern  languages,  commercial  drawing  and 
manual  labour,  for  the  benefit  of  children  who 
show  particular  aptitude  for  any  of  these  special 
—  104  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

subjects  and  who  desire  to  acquire  them  in  view 
of  their  future  walk  in  life. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  classing  of  the  chil- 
dren's intelligences  is  made  in  a  very  natural  manner, 
according  to  the  work  and  power  of  the  children 
and  never  without  parental  consent.  The  latter 
are  always  consulted  when  the  teachers  are  anxious 
to  put  a  child  into  one  of  the  classes  outside  the 
normal  syllabus.  The  masters  -do  not  encroach 
upon  the  rights  of  the  family  ;  they  are  merely  their 
advisers. 

What  has  been  attempted  at  Mannheim  1  is 
the  experiment  of  a  system  of  free  and  universal 
primary  schools,  where  pupils  and  parents,  without 
distinction  of  social  rank,  may  find  what  they 
require  and  what  suits  them  ;  i.e.  a  school  con- 
structed organically  to  suit  the  needs  of  an  intel- 
lectual, moral  and  physical  pedagogy,  and  grouping 
around  a  normal  nucleus  accessories  which  will  be 
helpful  to  the  weak  and  useful  to  rising  talent  ; 
in  short,  a  school  in  accordance  with  nature,  with 
reason  and  with  justice,  and  one  which  is  at  the 
same  time  the  real  and  unique  basis  of  already 
existing  higher  instruction. 


1  Dr.  Sickinger  has  published  for  the  Society  of  Teachers 
at  Mannheim  a  small  treatise  on  "  the  rational  organization 
of  primary  schools  in  the  large  towns,  in  particular  at  Mann- 
heim." He  has  reproduced  the  general  outlines  of  his 
treatise  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  May  7,  1915  (4th  supple- 
ment ) . 

—  105  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

All  this,  object  the  adversaries  of  the  unitaire 
school,  is  pure  idealogy  to  which  there  is  no  indis- 
putable answering  reality,  either  present  or  future, 
either  in  pedagogy  or  in  political  or  social  life.  The 
experiments  are  far  from  being  conclusive,  it  will 
be  impossible  to  generalize  from  them. 

The  more  the  teachers  defend  the  primary  school 
"of  their  dreams "  because  they  hope  it  will 
return  to  them,  not  only  a  better  class  of  pupil, 
but  also  the  rank  which  they  consider  themselves 
entitled  to  hold  in  society,  the  more  the  teachers  of 
secondary  education  fight  against  them.  The  for- 
mer cling  to  their  elementary  preparatory  classes,1 
elementary,  no  doubt,  but  not  "  popular,"  differ- 
ing in  substance  and  method  from  the  Volksschule, 
and  organized  for  more  highly  developed  children 
than  the  children  of  the  working  classes,2  whatever 
may  be  said  to  the  contrary.  Above  all,  let  no  one 
dream  of  infringing  on  their  own  "  higher  "  domain  ! 
To  wish  to  unite  the  secondary  to  the  primary  would 
be  to  lower  the  one  without  raising  the  other. 
Primary  teachers  are  going  too  far  in  claiming  to 

1  The  communication  made  at  the  forty-third  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  Philological  Society  of  Berlin  by  Dr.  Hubatsch, 
director  of  the  semi-classical  gymnasium  Schiller  of   Char- 
lottenburg,  in  order  to  refute  the  dissertations  of  the  par- 
tizans  of  the  Einheitsschule ,  gives  the  prevailing  tone    in 
the  secondary  centres    (Tdgliche    Rundschau,   January   3. 
1916). 

2  The  statements  and  the  statistics  of  the  director,  Dr. 
Hubatsch,  cannot  explain  away  this  characteristic  of  the 
elementary  classes. 

—  106  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

be  able  to  determine  whether  any  given  pupils 
of  theirs  possess  the  ripeness  necessary  for  passing 
into  a  gymnasium.  It  has  fearlessly  been  affirmed, 
that  the  unitaire  primary  school,  as  organized, 
for  instance,  by  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  at  Munich,  has 
given  "  anything  but  cheering  "  results.  In  virtue 
of  an  axiom  extremely  typical  of  satisfied  conserva- 
tive minds,  a  school's  duty  is  to  adapt  itself  to 
existing  social  conditions  and  by  no  means  to  create 
new  ones.  Politicians  claim  that  not  only  the 
unitaire  school  will  not  do  away  with  social 
differences,  but  that  it  is  even  in  the  interest  of  the 
social  classes  themselves,  each  to  evolve  according 
to  its  own  nature. 

Professor  Dr.  J.  F.  Schmidt,  titulary  of  the  chair 
of  pedagogy  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  has  opposed 
Herr  Rein  with  more  serious  arguments.1  Like  his 
colleague  of  Jena,  he  acknowledges  the  need  of  at 
last  bringing  about  the  complete  union  of  the  divers 
orders  of  education.  But  he  sees  a  real  danger  in 
the  general  unitaire  primary  school,  which  would 
form  the  foundation  of  it.  Such  a  school  would 
be  in  reality  a  "  teaching  "  school  (Gleichheitsschule). 
Now,  real  unity,  the  only  indispensable  unity,  rests 
upon  the  national  education  of  future  citizens.  This 
education  does  not  require  for  its  groundwork  a 

:    1  In  a  lecture  given  to  the  Comenius  Gesellschaft   on 
February  25,  on  the  problem  of  the  national  Einheitsschule 
(Vossische  Zeitung,  February  26,  1916),  and  in  zfeuilleton 
of  the  same  paper  of  March  23,  1916. 
—  107  — 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

unique  primary  school  of  instruction.  We  must 
not  confound  education  which  is  moral  and  social 
with  instruction  which  develops  individual  powers. 
If  the  latter,  in  its  most  elementary  stages,  is  made 
uniform,  and  equal  for  all  children,  we  are  creating 
a  fictitious  and  temporary  unity,  which  would  be 
as  injurious  to  the  primary  school  itself  as  to  the 
whole  body  of  public  education.  Once  the  higher 
grades  are  reached,  the  breaking  up  would  become 
apparent  and  confusion  would  follow.  Who  would 
think  of  depriving  secondary  education  of  its  liberty 
and  of  its  real  character  by  building  it  up  on  the 
necessarily  summary  foundations  of  levelling 
primary  education  ? 

For  in  adapting  itself  to  every  understanding, 
such  instruction  could  not  be  permitted  to  pass 
beyond  a  certain  minimum  level.  In  the  name  of 
a  social  postulate,  illusory  enough  it  is  true,  one 
would  destroy,  on  the  one  hand,  the  present  rich 
bloom  of  primary  education,  both  middle  and 
higher,  and  on  the  other  hand,  secondary  education 
would  be  forced  for  the  future  to  restrain  its  require- 
ments in  order  to  adjust  itself  to  a  primary  mini- 
mum !  Most  assuredly  every  one  recognizes  the 
imperious  necessity,  both  patriotic  and  national, 
of  not  letting  any  intellectual  force  be  lost  by  the 
untowardness  of  circumstances.  But  we  must 
take  care  not  to  fall  into  the  other  extreme,  and  not 
to  rear  up  a  "  mass  of  intellectuals  with  water  on 
the  brain,"  by  compelling  all  gifted  schoolboys  to 
—  108  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

become  students.  This  is  what  would  happen  if 
masters  of  levelling  schools  were  called  upon  to 
appraise  the  talents  of  their  "  good  pupils,"  without 
taking  into  account  that  they  would  be  encroaching 
on  the  rights  of  the  parents. 

Then  there  is  a  further  danger.  The  most  in- 
telligent members  of  the  working  classes  would  be 
lost  to  them.  Parents  are  so  ambitious  for  their 
little  ones  and  masters  so  ready  to  oblige  !  Have 
we  then  still  to  learn  that  the  "  brilliant  scholars  " 
do  not  always  fulfil  in  after  life  what  they  seemed 
to  promise  at  school  ?  The  unitaire  and  levelling 
school  would  soon  become  a  nursery  for  nonde- 
scripts ;  persons  who  have  stepped  out  of  their 
social  class. 

On  the  whole,  Herr  Schmidt,  who  is  nearer  the 
court  than  Herr  Rein,  and  who  does  not  appear  to 
be  in  favour  of  the  experiments  made  in  South 
Germany,  all  the  same  desires  the  unity  of  the 
school,  but  it  is  to  be  an  interior  and  organic  unity, 
not  based  on  a  scheme,  and  which  would  include 
all  public  education,  while  leaving  to  each  order 
its  own  individuality  and  its  freedom  to  develop. 
The  tie  which  would  bind  them  cannot  and  ought 
not  to  be  instruction  of  intellectual  faculties,  but 
education  "  by  ethics  and  tending  towards  the 
ideal  of  the  German  nation."  Schools  ought  all 
to  be  Bildungsschulen,  that  is  to  say,  establishments 
for  education  and  culture.  It  is  the  interest  of  the 
State,  an  interest  over-riding  every  other,  to 
—  109  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

give  all  the  help  possible  to  children  not  favoured  by 
fortune,  but  able  to  offer  moral  surety  in  return  for 
what  is  offered  to  them.  These  are  the  children 
whom  the  State  must  aid  to  make  their  way  un- 
shackled. 

*  *  * 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  supplement  the  opin- 
ions of  Herr  Rein  and  Herr  Schmidt  by  recording 
the  ways  of  thinking  of  less  important  lights ;  to 
the  arguments  of  such  men  as  Rein,  Kerschensteiner, 
Natorp  (of  Marburg),  Brahn  (of  Leipzig)  and 
Schmidt  they  have  only  added  remarks  dictated 
by  a  pugnacious  self-interest  which  could  never  influ- 
ence the  decision  of  the  Government.  For  any  one 
familiar  with  Prussia,  the  nature  of  this  decision 
could  not  be  in  doubt  for  one  minute.  The  Ein- 
heitsschule  has  no  chance  of  succeeding  in  any  shape 
or  form.  For  the  Administration  the  results  of 
the  reform  would  in  reality  be  more  political  than 
pedagogic.  Ever  since  1848  the  Liberals,  the  Demo- 
crats and  Socialists  of  Germany  have  cried  up  a 
reform  of  this  kind  as  a  means  of  closer  social 
connexion.  The  southern  and  central  states  have 
made  some  concessions.  Prussia  remains  stubborn. 
At  the  sitting  of  the  Chamber  of  Prussian  represen- 
tatives of  March  16,  1916,  the  Socialist  deputy 
Hoffman  energetically  pleaded  the  cause  of  the 
free,  neuter,  unitaire  primary  school.  As  may  well 
be  imagined,  he  claimed  the  establishment  of  such 
a  school  as  a  mark  of  gratitude  for  the  enormous 
—  no  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

sacrifices  made  by  the  working  classes  during  the 
present  war.  Outside  his  own  party,  he  met  with 
nothing  but  sarcasm  and  distrust.  The  Socialist 
motion  was  rejected.  "  The  Moor  has  done  his 
duty,  the  Moor  can  go,"  he  said  bitterly,  with 
Schiller,  to  define  the  attitude  of  the  prevailing 

body  towards  patriotic  Socialists. 

*  *  * 

As  to  the  reforms  which  fuse  into  one  organic 
and  pedagogic  system  all  orders  of  public  educa- 
tion, it  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  Prussia 
has  been  waiting  for  them  for  a  century.  The 
King  of  Prussia  who  called  Germany  to  arms  against 
Napoleon  had  no  time  to  sanction  the  plan  worked 
out  by  G.  von  Humboldt  and  Siivern,  in  accordance 
with  the  ideas  of  the  great  thinkers  and  pedagogues 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Wilhelm  II,  King  of 
Prussia  and  Emperor  of  Germany,  will  have  other 
things  to  think  of  after  "  his  big  war' "  than  to 
accomplish  a  reform  to  bring  about  which  the  con- 
scious friends  and  foes  of  the  unit  air  e  school  and  the 
sincere  politicians  of  nearly  all  parties  have  united 

together  at  a  moment  of  dire  patriotic  distress. 

*  *  * 

Will  nothing  then  remain  of  the  stir  created  round 
the  Einheitsschule  ?  Must  teachers  give  up  for 
lost  "  the  greatest  of  school  reforms  "  (according 
to  them)  which  would  "  open  the  way  "  for  talent, 
and  which  would  make  it  possible  to  extract  from 
the  nation  the  living  forces  which  she  needs  in  order 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

to    compensate    for    the    flower    of    the    citizens 
swallowed  up  by  the  war  ? 

Germany  and  Prussia  pretend  "  to  have  learnt  " 
by  this  war  how  much  "  strength  "  lay  concealed 
in  the  "  people."  Pedagogues  and  politicians  call 
upon  the  Government  to  let  them  strike  out  freely, 
and  to  open  the  road  to  careers  and  offices  to  such 
of  the  disinherited  as  are  capable  of  entering  upon 
them.  The  Emperor  or  his  Chancellor  have  re- 
peatedly shown  themselves  inclined  to  help.  But 
the  Administration  does  not  recognize  things  done 
on  impulse.  Who  will  make  the  selection  ?  How 
can  the  chosen  few  be  assisted  to  "  break  through  "  ? 
By  means  of  what  precautions  can  the  overcrowding 
of  higher  studies  be  avoided  :  how  provide  against 
the  forsaking  of  mechanical  trades  and  the  confu- 
sion of  classes,  etc.  ?  And  in  another  order  of 
ideas,  what  do  those  think,  who  up  to  now  have 
been  the  beati  possidentes  of  privileges  ? 

In  March,  1916,  the  Prussian  Minister  allowed 
these  questions  to  be  discussed  in  full  in  the  Press 
and  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  he  promised 
to  think  them  over.  He  made  it  known  that  al- 
ready, according  to  law,  10  per  cent,  of  the  pupils 
in  secondary  establishments  had  been  relieved  of 
the  costs  of  study,  and  that  since  the  war  this  pro- 
portion had  been  exceeded.  In  its  own  interest,  he 
added,  the  State  is  giving  up  more  than  three  and  a 
half  million  marks  in  school  fees.  In  addition  there 
are  numerous  scholarships,  which  are  not  given 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

away  "  like  alms."  Pedagogues  who  are  well- 
informed  are  less  optimistic  in  their  views.  Too 
many  of  these  scholarships  are  either  bestowed  by 
favour,  or  else  they  are  of  no  intrinsic  worth.  The 
well-known  Berlin  pedagogue,  Adolf  Mathias,  has 
asked  in  strong  terms  that  the  scholarships  for  study, 
endowment,  etc.,  should  be  centralized  and  that 
their  distribution  should  be  equitably  organized.1 
They  must  be  bestowed  on  merit  alone,  they  must 
be  sufficing,  and  prolonged  until  their  object  is 
attained,  and  they  must  be  pitilessly  denied  to  those 
who  deteriorate  in  the  course  of  their  schooling. 

As  to  the  facilities  for  transition  from  the  primary 
to  the  secondary  school,  the  Liberal  journals  have 
announced 2  that  the  Minister  has  decided  to 
abolish  the  entrance  examination  to  the  secondary 
sixth  for  pupils  not  coming  from  the  preparatory 

1  Berliner  Tageblatt,  February  17,  1916  (2nd  supplement). 
Zum  Thema  :    Entwurzelte  Jugend. 

2  Vossische   Zeitung,    June   6,    1916.     Der  Aufstieg  der 
Volksschuler  (ist    supplement).     Berliner  Tageblatt,   June 
27,  1916.     Schulpolitischer  Fortschritt,  by  Dr.  Max  Brahn, 
of  Leipzig.     Ibid.,  July   u,    1916.     Aufstiegswege  fur  be- 
gabte  Berliner  Gemeindeschulkinder,  by  the  municipal  in- 
spector  Dr.    L.    H.    Fischer.     This   functionary   proposes 
either  to  organize  preparatory  classes  side  by  side  with  the 
communal  schools,  in  view  of  the  secondary  schools,  or 
to  join  the  latter  to  the  semi-classical  schools  of  the  town, 
or,  in  fine,  to  create  special  secondary  schools  for  pupils 
leaving  the  primary  schools.     For  girls  the  upward  move- 
ment would  be  more  awkward  to  manage.     Herr  Fischer's 
schemes  would  only  bring  the  children  of  the  lower  classes 
to  the  semi-classical  or  normal  schools. 

—  113    —  H 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

classes,  and  to  authorize  primary  pupils  declared 
to  be  qualified  by  their  headmaster  and  their  in- 
spector, to  enter  it  after  their  third  primary  year 
without  further  formality.  The  one  reservation  is 
that  they  may  be  sent  back  to  the  primary  school 
should  they  prove  to  be  insufficiently  prepared  to 
hold  their  own  in  the  secondary  school.  On  the 
other  hand  the  primary  "  preparatory  classes  " 
would  be  invited  to  place  their  sj^llabus  on  the  same 
level  with  the  popular  primary  classes.  These 
gentle  means  would  lead,  it  is  thought,  to  their 
disappearance  through  want  of  nourishment.1  In 
other  respects  nothing  is  changed  in  the  statu  quo. 
But  it  seems  that  the  Liberal  papers  have  begun  to 
rejoice  too  soon.2 

The  Tdgliche  Rundschau*  whose  reactionary 
spirit  is  well  known,  announces,  in  fact,  that  "  well- 
informed  circles  "  were  unaware  that  such  a  decree 
was  being  formulated.  Of  course  the  Minister  would 
not  waste  his  time  in  bringing  to  light  a  decision  of 
1837  ( • )  regulating  the  admission  into  the  sixth 
class  of  the  gymnasia  :  he  desires  "  to  make  the 

1  "  The  idea  of  suppressing  the  preparatory  classes,  and 
of  forbidding  the  creation  of  private  schools  to  take  their 
places,  in  order  to  force  all  parents  to  send  their  children 
to  the  public  primary  school,  and  thus  open  to  all  social 
strata  the  entrance  to  higher  schools,  meets  with  obstacles 
which  it  would  be  difficult  to  overcome."     Commencement 
of  the  article  by  Herr  Fischer  quoted  above. 

2  "  Ein  schulpolitisches  Meisterstiick,    says  the   Radical 
Berliner  Tageblatt. 

3  July  6,  1916. 

—  114  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

terms  of  admission  more  uniform  so  that  they 
would  fit  in  with  the  present  syllabus  of  the  secondary 
schools.  For  there  would  be  considerable  diffi- 
culty in  uniting  the  primary  school  to  the  secondary." 
To  begin  with,  the  diversity  of  the  primary  schools 
themselves  would  be  an  obstacle.  There  are  in  fact 
some  who  spread  their  syllabus  over  periods  of  six, 
seven  or  eight  years,  whence  the  irregularity  of  the 
standard  of  teaching  after  the  third  year. 

We  do  not  know  if  the  partisans  of  this  little 
reform  are  taking  their  wishes  for  realities.  One 
thing  is  certain ;  the  ministerial  decision  will  not 
make  any  great  change.  It  will  scarcely  prove  to 
be  more  than  one  of  those  makeshifts,  "  which  are 
at  the  bottom  of  all  German  school  organization.'' 
Doubts  have  already  been  expressed  as  to  the 
''selection"  of  the  beneficiaries  created  by  this 
measure  1. 

The  German  pedagogues  are  not  acquainted  with 
the  system  of  competitive  examinations  in  force 
in  Latin  countries,  and  they  do  know  how  ticklish 
a  proceeding  election  is.  An  admirer  of  Fichte 
has  invented  a  whole  order  of  things  which  is  here 
summarized  as  being  a  curiosity.2  "  We  shall  begin 
by  checking  the  mortality  among  infants.  We 

1  Dr.  Max  Brahn,  among  others,  in  the  article  quoted 
from  the  Berliner   Tageblatt. 

2  Felix,  Baron  von  Stenglin,  in  the    Vossische  Zeitung 
of  September  21.     The  article  is  entitled  Deutsche  Erzie- 

(German  education). 

—  115  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

shall  diminish  degeneracy  and  depravity.  Healthy 
children,  both  boys  and  girls,  will  be  brought  up  to 
be  efficient  (Tuchtig)  in  every  way.  The  idea  of 
'  one  year's  service  '  for  women  is  quite  feasible.1 
The  boys  will  all  be  taught  in  the  same  popular 
school,  or  at  all  events  in  accordance  with  a  common 
syllabus  which  on  principle  allows  them  all  to  pass 
into  higher  schools.  Every  year  a  selection  of  the 
most  highly  gifted  will  be  made.  Poor  but  promis- 
ing subjects  ought  to  have  it  in  their  power  '  to 
attain  to  higher  work/  provided  they  come  of 
honourable  parentage. ' '  The  State,  who  needs  them, 
will  bear  the  expenses  of  their  education  and  their 
keep,  in  boarding  houses  specially  provided,  and 
till  the  time  when  they  are  nominated  to  some 
public  employment.  The  State  will  even  make 
compensation  to  the  parents  for  the  loss  of  what 
their  children  might  have  earned  since  their  four- 
teenth year.  Naturally  the  number  of  the  chosen 
few  will  be  limited,  in  order  to  avoid  overcrowding, 
confusion  of  classes  and  impoverishment  of  intel- 
lect in  the  working  classes.  Rich  dunces  must 
likewise  be  cast  back  into  the  masses,  where  they 
will "  become  regenerated."  And  thus  "  in  quicken- 
ing active  relations  between  the  different  social 
classes/'  the  exhausted  stock  will  recover  new  sap. 
"  Heroism,  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  of  modern 

1  The  Press  of  1915-1916  has  devoted  many  articles 
to  this  subject  of  martial  womanhood.  See  below,  Chap- 
ter VII. 

—  116  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

organization  have  revealed  a  '  strength '  which 
must  absolutely  be  perpetuated  and  increased  :  after 
1914-1915  there  is  no  future  for  Germany  without 
further  progress." 

The  author  of  this  dream  future  for  Germany 
knows  that  the  main  conception  of  his  system  is 
taken  from  the  French  Revolution.  The  coun- 
sels of  Fichte  were  not  listened  to.  For  the 
nineteenth  century  has  only  brought  to  Germany 
a  partial  realization  of  the  schemes  of  the 
patriot  philosopher.  Baron  von  Stenglin  would 
like  the  subject  to  be  re-approached  "  with 
method/'  i.e.  by  creating  "  favourable  conditions  "  ; 
for  he  has  "  faith  in  an  unsuspected  power  of 
imitation  "  on  the  part  of  Germany  if  only  she 
can  "  unchain  her  forces."1 

A  politician  of  note,  von  Zedlitz,  and  Neukirch, 
leader  of  an  important  fraction  of  the  Conservatives 
of  Prussia,  considers  a  selection  possible,  but  always 
on  the  condition  that  it  should  be  most  severe  and 
that  it  should  only  admit  to  higher  studies  poor 
but  exceptionally  gifted  children.  But  he  foresees 
a  strong  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  drones — by 
which  you  are  to  understand  the  sons  of  the  rich 
and  of  people  of  standing,  who  would  not  like  to 
be  dispossessed  of  "  their  "  professions  and  forced 
to  take  up  others  not  so  much  looked  up  to.2 

1  Berliner  Tageblatt,  June  12,  1915  (abstract  of  an  article 
by  von  Zedlitz  in  the  Post). 

*  In  Germany  a  man  is  taxed  socially,  according  to  his 

—  117  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

Herr  von  Zedlitz  knows  the  forces  of  prejudice 
among  his  own  party.  He  is  so  imbued  with  them 
himself,  in  spite  of  his  apparent  concessions,  that 
he  makes  an  exception  of  "  officers  "  in  his  scheme 
of  the  emancipation  of  the  less  fortunate.  This 
reservation,  as  also  the  precautions  recommended 
for  the  selection,  are  significant.  Officers  and  wards 
of  the  State  would  form  a  staff  that  no  social  de- 
mocracy could  break  up.  Men  capable  of  thinking 
would  be  subject  to  a  servitude  even  more  complete 

than  it  is  at  present. 

*  *  * 

In  our  opinion  it  is  an  outsider  who  has  struck 
the  right  chord  in  the  discussion  about  the  Ein- 
heitsschule  and  the  ministerial  promise  relating  to 
the  facilities  henceforward  to  be  granted  to  talent. 
At  the  same  time  this  writer  expresses  his  regret 
that  no  one  has  thought  of  professional  and  artistic 
careers. 1 

"  That  is  all  as  it  should  be.     It  is  the  principle 

birth,  and  for  some  time  according  to  his  fortune,  his 
public  functions  and  according  to  his  "  academical  "  titles. 
Aristocracy  of  nobility  and  fortune  ;  officialdom  ;  certifi- 
cated intellectualism.  We  hope  that  after  the  war 
"personal  worth  "  will  become  the  determining  factor  in 
the  "selection"  of  the  social  elite.  Die  soziale  Wertung 
der  Berufe  (The  appreciation  of  professions  from  a  social 
point  of  view),  by  Professor  Dr.  Eulenburg  (of  Leipzig),  Ber- 
liner Tageblatt,  June  10,  1916  (and  supplement). 

1  Fritz  Stahl,  Von  (Lev  Werkstall  zur  A  kademie  (From  the 
Workshop  to  the  University),  in  the  Berliner  Tageblatt, 
July  2,  1916. 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  so  far  the  unique  result  produced  by  the  grand 
sentiment  of  community  in  the  first  stages  of  the 
war.  All  partitions  separating  Germans  from  Ger- 
mans had  to  fall,  just  as  in  the  army  there  were  to 
be  no  longer  parties  nor  rank.  Since  then,  the  daily 
routine  has  reasserted  its  rights,  and  we  must  see 
how  many  or  how  few  of  these  flowers  of  fancy 
will  reach  maturity. 

The  beautiful  idea  of  unity  in  education  is  perhaps 
better  as  an  idea  than  as  a  reality.  In  any  case  it  is 
very  difficult  to  realize,  perhaps  even  impossible. 
The  one  essential  is  doubtless  that  the  gifted  child 
should  have  a  free  path,  and  that  the  barrier  of 
social  class  and  of  poverty  should  not  make  the 
"  ascension "  impossible.  In  this  way  life  will 
open  in  a  widely  different  manner  before  the  child 
of  the  lower  classes.  Everything  depends  on  the 
free  and  humane  putting  into  execution  of  the 

measures  taken  for  his  welfare. 

*  *  * 

In  truth,  the  measures  taken  by  the  Administra- 
tion, if  at  all  resembling  what  was  announced  by 
the  Radical  press,  will  be  all  that  is  left  of  the  latest 
pedagogic  and  political  joust  for  the  unit  air  e  school. 

Prussia  is  not  yet  ready  to  become  Liberal. 


119  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  V 
The  War  and  Humanistic  Studies 

HOW  is  it  that  in  Germany,  from  the  very  first 
months  of  the  war,  the  "  higher  "  (i.e.  the 
secondary)  schools,  and  especially  the  "  classical 
gymnasia/'  have  been  attacked  with  a  violence  and 
an  animosity  hitherto  unknown  in  the  scholastic 
conflicts  ?  Headmasters  and  teachers,1  students 
at  the  Universities,2  collegians  of  the  higher  classes 3 

1  There  is  hardly  any  difference  between  the  gymnasia 
and  the  non-classical  secondary  schools  as   regards  the 
number  of  teachers  who  have  been  mobilized.     One  hun- 
dred and  eighteen  masters  have  gone  from  the  non-classical 
secondary  school  of    Konigstadt'in  Berlin:    ninety-four 
have  gone  from  the  Ascanien  gymnasium  ;  eighty  from  the 
Helmholtz  classical  secondary  school.     In  Berlin  the  per- 
centage varies  from    thirty  to  fifty-eight.     We  have  not 
sufficient  data  to  enable  us  to  determine  the  exact  share 
of  the  classical  gymnasia  and  the  non-classical  or  semi- 
classical    schools    of    the    provinces     (Vossische    Zeitung, 
June  20,    1915.     Berliner  Lokal-Anzeiger,   April  4,   1915). 
Frankfurter  Zeitung,  September  14,  1915-1916  40  per  cent. 

2  See  above,  p.  39  note   i,     The  number  of   students 
who  have  enlisted  is  56,000. 

3  According  to  sixty  annual  reports  relating  to  Berlin 
and  the  neighbourhood,  it  is  supposed  that  on  an  average 
30  per  cent,  of  the  students  between  the  third  superior 

—  120   — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

had  hastened  to  join  the  army  as  officers,  non- 
commissioned officers  in  the  reserve,  or  as  simple 
volunteers.  It  was  said  that  there  were  enough  of 
them  to  form  several  army  corps. 

No  grievance  had  been  formulated  against  them — 
indeed  the  contrary  was  rather  the  case.  Whence 
then  this  sudden  furious  craving  to  "  overturn 
completely  "  the  type  of  school  which  had  produced 
them  ?  This  is  a  question  which  must  have  sug- 
gested itself  to  the  readers  of  the  leading  German 
newspapers  when  they  had  read  the  war  news  and 
passed  on  to  the  other  intelligence  supplied  by  their 
paper. 

Wilhelm  II  flattered  himself  on  having  estab- 
lished a  modus  vivendi  between  "  the  Ancients  and 
the  Moderns."  On  two  occasions  he  convoked 
them  to  a  conference  at  Berlin  in  order  that  they 
might  settle  their  differences.  A  Rescript,  which  he 
signed  on  board  one  of  his  warships  in  1900, 
announced  that  "  as  far  as  the  culture  of  the  intellect 
was  concerned,"  the  classical  gymnasia  and  the  non- 
classical  secondary  schools  were  of  an  equal  effi- 
ciency. Each  type  of  school  was  thenceforward  to 
develop  on  its  own  lines  and  to  put  every  effort  into 
the  task  of  producing  loyal  and  useful  citizens  for  the 
Empire. 

class  and  the  first  superior  class  have  enlisted  ;   that  is  to 
say  those  belonging  to  the  five  highest  classes  of  the  second- 
ary schools  (Vossische  Zeitung,  June  20,  1915).     In  many 
cases  the  first  class  is  entirely  without  pupils. 
—  121  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

This  compromise  robbed  the  classical  gymnasium 
of  none  of  its  privileges.  It  is  now,  as  in  the  past, 
the  gate  to  every  career.  It  can  count  on  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Universities  and  the  favour  of  the  upper 
classes  as  well  as  of  all  right-minded  people.  This 
regard  may  even  have  been  increased  by  the  "  perse- 
cution "  to  which  it  has  been  subjected.  The 
non-classical  secondary  schools  have  likewise  pros- 
pered, thanks  to  the  industry  and  commerce  of  the 
country  which  they  keep  supplied  with  an  army  of 
active  and  well-disciplined  servants.  Their  ambi- 
tions were  however  combated  by  too  formidable  a 
number  of  prejudices.  They  also  desired  to  see  their 
pupils  able  to  hold  posts  under  Government  without 
needing  further  qualifications.  Their  demands  grew 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  material 
forces  of  the  Empire  ;  and  when  the  government  of 
Berlin  gave  the  sign  for  the  general  upheaval,  not 
even  the  commands  of  the  master  furnished  a  reason 
for  further  restraint. 

The  dispute  is  one  which  could  have  been  put  off 
till  the  end  of  the  war.  A  few  "  heroes  of  the  rod," 
touched  by  the  "  devastating  madness "  of  the 
"brave  warriors"1  at  the  front,  might  have  been 
allowed  to  brawl,  and  little  harm  would  have  ensued 
from  the  agitations  of  professional  innovators  who 
were  anxious  to  find  an  opening  for  hitherto  unsuc- 
cessful reforms.  But  as  it  was,  confusion  reigned  in 

1  The  words  between  inverted  commas  have  been  bor- 
rowed from  the  German  political  documents. 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

every  department  of  national  education  before  the 
war  was  many  weeks  old.  Prussia  was  especially 
affected  because  her  organization  is  especially  finick- 
ing and  hide-bound.  In  order  to  avoid  closing  the 
schools,  the  Administration  went  to  the  length  of 
putting  women  in  the  places  of  the  masters  who  had 
been  mobilized.  This  was  even  done  in  the  secondary 
schools.1  Such  a  thing  had  never  been  seen  before 
in  Germany.  Public  opinion  took  alarm  at  the 
increase  in  juvenile  crime,  with  the  natural  conse- 
quence that  the  nation,  being  in  a  state  of  nerves, 
began  to  call  the  educative  value  of  the  schools  into 
question.  Persons  well  qualified  to  speak  gave 
agonized  expression  to  their  fears  for  the  future  of 
the  race  and  of  the  Fatherland.  The  excitement 
aroused  by  the  war  rekindled  political  passion  in 
spite  of  the  truce  in  the  strife  of  parties  which,  like 
so  many  other  things,  had  been  ordered  by  the 
Emperor  in  his  first  call  to  the  nation.  The  peda- 
gogues, who  are  usually  a  peaceful  and  well  disci- 
plined race,  were  among  the  first  to  be  carried  away. 
The  military  authorities  had  called  up  the  young 
men  and  pointed  out  to  the  educational  authorities 
that  the  duty  of  inaugurating  the  military  training 
of  schoolboys  lay  with  them.  From  the  outset,  a 
whole  afternoon  of  the  scholastic  week  had  to  be 

1  Frankfurter   Zeitung,    September    14,    1915.     Berliner 
Tageblatt,  October  15,   1915.     Frauen  in  Berliner  Gymna- 
sien,    Vossische  Zeitung,  December  5,   1915.     Die  Lehrer- 
Kollegien  im  Krieg,  by  Prof.  Dr.  Hildebrandt. 
—123  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

devoted  to  this  intruding  "  subject  "  which  received 
support  from  high-placed  personages  and  enjoyed  at 
the  same  time  the  favour  of  the  populace.  Of  course 
it  went  without  saying  that  the  subjects  to  be  cut 
out  of  the  programme  were  the  "  useless  "  ones, 
those  which  were  mere  "  luxuries,"  those  which 
were  dubbed  "  ideal  "  or  considered  to  be  "  too  far 
removed  from  the  national  needs  of  the  moment." 
This  constituted  a  direct  attack  on  the  classical 
humanities. 

"  In  his  trench,  amid  the  thunder  of  the  guns," 
the  headmaster  of  a  gymnasium  suddenly  felt  himself 
drawn  to  demolish  the  antiquated  institution  over 
which  he  had  once  presided,  and  he  drew  up  a  new 
plan  in  conformity  with  "  the  great  German  actual- 
ity." Here  we  see,  no  doubt,  the  example  of 
Louvain.  His  letter  appeared  in  an  educational 
review  which  is  regarded,  rightly  or  wrongly,  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  Administration.1  A  colleague 
echoed  his  sentiments  in  a  somewhat  louder  strain 
in  an  equally  reputable  daily  paper.2 

According  to  these  wild  reformers  secondary 
education  is  nothing  but  "  superfetation  "  and  "  in- 
coherence," a  wretched  forcing  down  of  the  intellect, 

1  Monatsschrift  fur  hohere  SQhulen. 

2  The  author  owes  this  information  to  an  article  by 
Oberlehrer  Dr.   Rommel,  entitled    Das    Gymnasium    eine 
Ruine  ?  and  published  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung  for  October 
3,   1915.     Dr.  Rommel    alludes    to    the   articles    entitled 
Unsere  jungen  Griechen  und  Romer  which  appeared  in  the 
Kolnische  Zeitung,  Nos.  371  and  451  (1915). 

—  124  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

cursed  by  pupils  and  parents  alike."  As  for  the 
classical  gymnasium,  all  that  can  be  said  of  it  is  that 
it  is  "  a  crumbling  ruin,  patched  up  here  and  there, 
having  long  outlived  its  usefulness.  It  is  in  fact  an 
anachronism."  It  must  be  "swept  away"  and 
replaced  by  some  really  German  institution  which 
will  "  be  able  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  present 
day."  This  might  be  some  kind  of  "  school  of  non- 
commissioned officers  and  teachers  of  gymnastics, 
without  Latin,  Greek,  or  foreign  languages,  and 
teaching  nothing  except  an  immense  amount  of 

physical  culture  flavoured  with  a  little  science." 
*  *  * 

One  can  imagine  the  effect  produced  by  sallies 
of  this  kind  on  the  general  public  just  when  their 
heads  were  being  turned  by  the  "  technical " 
successes  of  the  "  brave  "  armies.  In  the  Radical 
Berliner  Tageblatt 1  one  of  its  regular  collaborators, 
Fritz  Mauthner,  dwelt  with  a  certain  raciness  on 
the  supposed  common  sense  of  the  man  in  the  street. 
How  many  subjects  he  has  been  forced  to  study 
during  a  lamentable  number  of  years  which  might 
have  formed  the  best  period  of  his  youth  !  And 
how  tiresome,  useless  and  even  false  were  these 
subjects,  which  were  as  quickly  forgotten  as  they 

1  October  7,  1915.  On  January  26,  1916,  the  same 
paper  published  a  similar  article  by  Paul  Harms,  entitled 
Die  Schule  nach  dem  Kriege.  "  The  sole  function  of  the 
school  is  to  train  citizens  who  will  be  useful  to  the  German 
Empire  :  this  may  well  be  done  without  Greek  or  Latin." 
_  125  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

were  painfully  learnt.  Like  Wilhelm  II,  Mauthner 
has  no  very  comforting  recollection  of  the  "  cram- 
ming establishment  "  :  "  Pity  for  the  little  ones  ! 
listen  to  Montaigne,  Rousseau,  Fichte  and  Pestalozzi. 
Have  done  with  classical  antiquity,  with  history, 
or  rather  with  '  stories/  scrap  collections  of  ridicu- 
lous legends  and  non-proven  facts  which  do  not 
interest  young  people.  The  classical  gymnasium 
has  had  its  day.  It  has  rendered  great  services  in 
the  past  but  it  is  now  decaying.  The  world  has 
gone  ahead,  and  the  realities  of  the  moment  have 
an  imperious  claim  on  us.  Children  are  the  future 
of  the  people,  and  the  schools  are  the  future  of  this 
future.  Let  the  State  authorize  the  teachers  to 
bring  up  happy  children  in  a  common  school ;  to 
teach  things  and  not  words  ;  to  exercise  a  prudent 
justice  which  will  make  the  attainment  of  a  higher 
degree  of  learning  or  of  a  responsible  position  depend 
entirely  on  natural  gifts,  without  fearing  that  the 
son  of  a  day-labourer  may  become  an  attache  at  an 
embassy.  The  State  must  not  have  the  right  to 
make  examinations  in  Greek  and  Latin  the  test  of  a 
man's  ability  to  fill  a  public  office." 

From  his  bed  in  hospital,  Franz  Werfel,  a  young 
poet  wounded  in  the  war,  made  answer  "  with 
passion  "  to  the  facile  "  sarcasms  "  of  this  "  free 
thinker  "*  He  also  endured  "  the  vexations  and  the 

1  On  October  27,  1915,  the  Tageblatt  inserted  the  reply, 
but  merely  out  of  deference,  and  without  endorsing  the 
poet's  opinions. 

—  126  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

tortures  "  of  the  classical  school  for  nine  years. 
'*  The  details  of  the  things  taught  have  vanished,  but 
the  synthesis  has  remained."  Do  people,  he  asks, 
wish  to  "  americanize  "  the  brains  of  the  young, 
"  to  dry  up  their  dreams,  and  to  turn  boys  of  fifteen 
into  makers  of  machinery,  into  dentists,  or  into 
surgeons  ?  "  What  is  needed  is  a  cure  for  the 
"  immense  psychological  innocence  of  educators 
which  might  be  better  described  as  their  ignorance 
of  the  rising  generation  and  their  inability  to  train 
it/' 

The  journalist  has  politely  made  his  bow  to  this 
generous  idealism.  His  only  protest  has  been  to 
disclaim  all  desire  to  preach  a  basely  utilitarian 
"  pragmatism."  But  he  knows  that  at  this  time  of 
patriotic  enthusiasm  he  has  on  his  side  the  world  of 
business,  practical  politicians,  and  nationalist  peda-  ^ 
gogues. 

One  of  the  latter  l  relates,  with  righteous  indigna- 
tion, that  he  heard  an  engineer  and  a  chemist,  both 
Germans,  hope  for  the  end  of  the  war  "  in  order 
that  they  might  live  in  comfortable  and  easy  circum- 
stances and  draw  a  large  salary.  The  first  hoped  to 
achieve  this  by  returning  to  the  factories  of  Poutilow, 
and  the  other  by  going  back  to  England."  "  It  is 
necessary  for  the  good  of  the  Vaterland  and  of  the 
countries  which  will  form  with  it  the  future  "  Mid- 

1  Kolnische   Zeitung,   July   17,    1915  :   Staatsburgerliche 
Aufgaben  der  hoheren.     Schulen,  by  Fr.  Hahn,  Oberlehrer  at 
the  Gymnasium  at  Mulheim  on  the  Rhine. 
—  127  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

European  Union/'  that  German  citizens  shall  be 
taught  and  educated  in  a  purely  German  fashion. 
Such  at  any  rate  must  be  the  procedure  if  the  object 
is  to  produce  a  civic  spirit  which  will  make  it  from 
henceforth  impossible  for  Russia  to  hold  sixty 
million  roubles'  worth  of  bonds  in  Germany,  as  was 
the  case  in  1913.  Finally,  it  is  time  that  German 
civic  teaching  should  become  the  pivot  on  which  all 
the  teaching  in  "  superior  "  schools,  and  even  in  the 
Universities,  turns,  so  that  no  German  can  again 
become  a  traitor  to  his  country  by  working  abroad  for 
its  enemies.1 


The  readiness  with  which  these  attacks  were 
echoed  by  public  opinion  terrified  the  Friends  of  the 
Classical  Gymnasium,  an  association  of  philologists 
which  receives  powerful  support  from  former  pupils 
already  high  up  in  the  world  of  science  or  the 
Administration . 

They  protested  in  the  following  terms  : 

"It  is  true  that  the  war  has  borne  irrefutable 

testimony  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  forces  of  the 

German  nation  which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  German 

school  to  preserve  and  to  increase.    It  is  however 

1  It  is  well  known  that  the  German  Government  has 
reminded  all  Germans,  and  especially  those  in  America, 
that  they  will  be  guilty  of  high  treason  if  they  work  in  the 
munition  factories  or  in  any  others  which  are  supplying 
the  Allies. 

—  128  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

equally  certain  that  these  forces  which  have  been 
cultivated  for  centuries,  are  based,  in  part  at  least, 
on  the  culture  of  the  Ancients.  It  is  especially  the 
fruitful  afflux  of  antique  thought  which,  together 
with  Christianity,  has  produced  what  is  known 
to-day  as  '  the  German  way  '  (deutsche  Art).  The 
value  of  the  classical  gymnasium  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  a  place  where  this  thought  is  cultivated.  The 
abolition  or  the  curtailment  of  the  gymnasium  at  a 
time  when  the  greatest  of  national  events  is  taking 
place  would  only  be  justifiable  if  the  young  men  it 
has  sent  out  to  fight  had  proved  themselves  inferior 
physically,  morally,  intellectually  or  perhaps  patriot- 
ically, and  if  the  educative  treasures  of  antiquity 
could  be  replaced  by  others. 

"The  opponents  of  the  gymnasium  have  not  yet 
proved  this  to  be  the  case  and  will  soon  be  forced  to 
give  up  all  idea  of  ever  doing  so.  The  supreme 
stake  of  the  present  war  is  the  national  culture  of 
Germany,  which  owes  its  particular  character  to  the 
cult  of  Antiquity.  He  who  seeks  to  diminish  or 
destroy  the  gymnasium  is  depriving  our  culture  of 
one  of  the  essential  conditions  of  its  existence.  In 
common  with  everything  which  has  become  a 
reality  in  history,  the  gymnasium  is  subject  to  the 
law  of  evolution.  In  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  it  will 
therefore  remain  susceptible  to  new  experiences 
(Erkenntnisse)  and  to  fresh  needs  as  they  arise.  For 
instance,  the  recent  ministerial  order  relative  to  the 
reorganization  of  the  teaching  of  history  was  hailed 
—  129  -  i 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

by  it  with  enthusiasm.  But  its  essential  character, 
namely,  the  return  to  the  ancient  sources  of  our 
culture,  must  certainly  be  preserved  if  our  nation  is 
not  to  be  debarred  from  the  understanding  of  its 
past  and  its  present. 

The  Friends  of  the  Classical  Gymnasium  further 
declare,  with  perfect  impartiality,  that  they  give 
unreserved  recognition  to  the  three  types  of 
secondary  schools ;  they  will  not  raise  their  hand 
against  them  and  in  no  way  desire  others  to  do  so." 

The  protest  is  a  dignified  one,  but  the  embarrassed 
and  at  the  same  time  conciliatory  tone  adopted 
reveals  only  too  plainly  that  the  authors  felt  a 
poignant  anxiety.  They  realized  that  the  moment 
and  the  object  of  the  attack  were  equally  serious.1 

This  is  not  the  place  for  a  detailed  examination  of 
the  main  arguments  which  have  already  been 
marshalled  against  the  classical  humanities.  Detract- 
ors who  make  it  their  business  to  inveigh  against  the 
humanities  have  recapitulated  these  arguments  from 
habit.  Those  of  a  cleverer  type  have  harped  on 
points  relating  to  the  measure,  the  modality  and  the 
opportuneness  of  classical  teaching  under  present 

1  The  Frankfurter  Zeitung  (September  30,  1915)  merely 
reproduces  it  without  comment,  but  underlines  the  phrase 
relating  to  national  culture.  The  Vossische  Zeitung  (Sep- 
tember 26)  inserted  a  communication  entitled  Angriffe 
gegen  das  Gymnasium  (attacks  against  the  gymnasium). 
This  article,  which  was  contributed  by  some  Oberlehrer 
(assistant  masters),  describes  the  attack  as  unjustified, 
inopportune  and  unconsidered. 

—  130  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

circumstances.  According  to  them,  the  classical 
gymnasium  has  profited  but  little  from  the  earlier 
recriminations  inasmuch  as  it  has  not  protected 
itself  against  fresh  attacks.  Latin  and  Greek  still 
have  the  first  place  in  the  time  table.  In  all  esti- 
mates of  the  pupils'  work  *•  it  has  still  been  the 
custom  to  attribute  to  them  the  co-efficient 
maximum  of  "  principal  and  obligatory  subjects.'* 
The  teaching  has  retained  its  grammatical  and 
philological  character.  The  masters  remain  attached 
to  the  pseudo-humanistic  tradition  which  aims  at 
"  preparing  young  men  for  life  by  teaching  them 
nothing  which  is  not  directly  useful  in  life. 2  Being  1 
themselves  University  men,  they  train  their  pupils 
with  a  view  to  entering  upon  higher  studies.  These 
were  vulnerable  points  in  the  defensive  position 
which  the  gymnasium  had  been  driven  to  adopt 
during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  the  Radicals 

1  ZUY   Neugestaltung    unseres    hoheren   Schulwesens,    by 
Dr.    Georg    E.    Burckhardt,    in    the    Kolnische    Zeitung, 
November   8,    1915.     Herr  Burckhardt  demands  a  living 
instruction,  given  by  teachers  who  are  capable  of  impart- 
ing a  national  German  education  whatever  subject  they 
happen  to  be  teaching  :   he  asks  that  all  subjects  provided 
for  in  the  curriculum  shall  be  looked  upon  as  equivalents, 
and  calls  for  the  requisite  reforms  in  discipline,  in  records 
kept  of  the  pupils,  in  the  promotions  and  leaving  examina- 
tions.   In  short,  the  writer  desires  a  "  human  "  gymnasium 
made  for  the  pupils  instead  of  the  "  conventional  dogma  " 
which  has  been  elaborated  for  their  subjection. 

2  An  axiom  attributed  to  Oscar  Jager,  a  pedagogue  who 
is  well  known  as  a  defender  of  the  classical  gymnasium, 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

did  not  fail  to  levy  their  attacks  against  them. 
They  hope,  under  cover  of  political  passion,  to  rid 
themselves  for  good  of  an  institution  which  the 
Conservatives  are  struggling  to  save  in  the  interests 
of  their  caste  and  their  pretended  superiority. 

Persons  in  a  position  to  judge  of  the  matter 
became  aware  that  the  very  principle  of  humanistic 
education  was  in  danger. 

The  German  humanists  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century  had  built  up  the  school  and  the  gymnasium 
in  accordance  with  a  sane  theory  of  teaching  which 
required  them  to  train  a  man  for  himself  above  all, 
to  give  him  a  moral  personality  and  an  intellectual 
individuality  by  means  of  lessons  best  calculated 
to  develop  his  natural  faculties.  Antiquity,  that  is 
to  say  Hellenism,  with  its  moral  and  aesthetic  quali- 
ties, and  Latin  with  its  logical  structure  and  its 
grammar,  seemed,  at  that  period,  the  best  able  to 
supply  the  means  of  producing  men  in  the  complete 
and  ideal  sense  of  the  word.1 

During  the  nineteenth  century,  other  influences, 
whether  scientific,  realistic,  social  or  political, 

1  Die  Schulpolitik  des  Neuhumanismus  und  ihre  Be- 
deutung  fur  die  Gegenwart,  by  Prof.  Dr.  Budde  (Hanover), 
in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  August  i,  1915  (supplement). 
The  same  author  has  published  a  pamphlet  entitled  Krieg 
und  hohere  Schule  (Langensalza,  1915),  in  which  he  seeks  to 
prove  that  in  the  future,  Deutschtum  must  be  the  pivot  on 
which  all  secondary  education  turns,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
superior  to  antiquity  and  to  all  modern  languages  and 
cultures. 

—  132  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

deflected  German  pedagogy  from  this  generally 
humanitarian  aim.  The  secondary  school,  and 
especially  the  classical  gymnasium,  was  peculiarly 
exposed  to  these  outside  influences  and  perpetually 
obliged  to  counteract  them  in  order  to  defend  its 
"  ideal."  The  attacks  of  the  present  time  are  the 
logical  consequence  of  this  evolution.  As  it  is  ' 
impossible  to  go  up  stream  again,  the  efforts  of  the 
wisest  pedagogues  are  now  being  directed  to  save  the 
fundamental  principle  of  humanistic  teaching,  and 
indeed  of  all  sound  teaching,  by  substituting 
German  "  Kultur  "  for  classical  culture,  according 
to  the  taste  of  the  hour. 

What  an  anachronism,  nay,  what  an  unpardonable 
heresy  it  would  be  to  bring  up  young  Germans  to  the 
worship  of  ancient  Greece !  Has  not  scientific 
history  revealed  a  Hellenism  far  different  l  from 
that  which  the  last  century  was  pleased  to  idealize, ', 
in  order  to  supply  children  with  models  of  perfect 
man,  perfect  citizens,  heroes,  thinkers,  writers  and 
artists  ?  Antique  culture  is  but  the  "  root  "  of 
German  culture  ! 2  "  We  Germans  have  no  use  for  a 

1  Was   spricht  gegen   das  Gymnasium  ?    by  Oberlehrer 
Dr.  Kurt  Kesseler  (Vossische  Zeitung,  November  21,  1915, 
6th   supplement).     Dr.    Richard   Fritze    (of   Kiel)   replied 
to  this  article  by  saying  that  Homer,   Sophocles,   Plato, 
Demosthenes  remain  what  they  are,  that  Greek  Art  will 
for  ever  be  the  "  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  "  to  German 
Culture  (Ibid.,  November  27,  1915). 

2  This  is  one  of  the  ideas  of  the  famous  pan-German 
historian  Karl  Lamprecht. 

—  133  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

'  root  '  as  we  have  the  flower  and  the  fruit  in  our 
own  culture  !  " 

What  is  the  use,  cries  another,  of  boring  young 
men  with  grammatical  rules  and  difficult  reading 
now  that  trains  carry  one  in  all  comfort  onto  classical 
soil,  photography  reproduces  the  ancient  monu- 
ments, and  translations  enable  one  to  read  ancient 
authors  with  profit  ?  The  study  of  Greek  has  been 
so  much  cut  down  that  it  can  no  longer  lead  to  any- 
thing. As  for  Latin,  its  educative  value  in  the 
training  of  the  mind  has  been  exaggerated.  A 
reaction  has  set  in.  Specialists  qualified  to  judge 
speak  of  it  as  of  an  antiquated  dogma.1  We  now 
possess  other  subjects  which  demand  "  intellectual 
gymnastics  "  and  which  have  a  precision  of  their 
own  :  as  for  instance  mathematics.  And  as  there  is  no 
further  imperative  demand  for  "  formal  education," 
and  people  are  clamouring  for  a  training  for  life 
based  on  moral  idealism  (eine  in  einem  sittlichen 
Idealismus  wurzelnde  Lebensbildung)  .2  It  is  not 
necessary  to  borrow  from  other  ages  and  races  that 
which  the  German  people  possesses  in  such  great 
and  excellent  abundance. 

Athens  and  Rome  with  their  "  culture  "  have 
been  relegated,  more  or  less  respectfully,  to  the 
Museums  of  Antiquities.  Germany  and  its  culture 
will  take  their  place.  An  increasingly  large  number 

1  Formate  Bildung,  by  Prof.   Dr.   Budde   (Hanover)  in 
the  Kolnische  Zeitung,  February  17,  1916. 

2  Budde,  Formale  Bildung,  cit. 

—  134  — . 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

of  persons  have,  since  the  war,  begun  to  walk  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  Emperor,  who  "  with  remarkable  in- 
sight," at  the  conferences  of  1890  and  1900  l  asked  for 
"  a  more  decided  nationalization  of  secondary  educa- 
tion." Sincere  friends  of  the  humanistic  gymnasium 
now  admit  the  necessity  of  turning  the  "classical 
gymnasium  "  into  a  "  German  gymnasium."  They 
ask  that  it  shall  produce  citizens  of  the  German 
State,  capable  both  of  undertaking  scientific  labours 
and  of  filling  posts  requiring  initiative  and  trust. 
But  all  do  not  go  the  length  of  claiming  that  educa- 
tion in  the  future  must  renounce  its  true  function, 
which  is  the  training  of  men,  in  order  to  train  merely 
German  men  and  women.2  They  have  an  "  iron  " 
conviction  that  German  culture  has  assimilated  all 
the  valuable  essentials  of  antiquity  and  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  2  but  they  do  not  carry  their  nationalist 

1  Budde,  Formale  Bildung. 

2  Die   deutsche   hohere  Schule   der  Zukunft,   by   Dr.    K. 
Horn  (of  Frankfurt  a.  M.)   (Report  by  Dr.  Budde,  in  the^| 
Berliner  Lokal-Anzeiger  of  June  3,  1916).     "  If  Horn  really 
means  to  say  that  it  is  not  men  that  we  wish  to  train  in  our 
upper  schools,  but  German  men  and  women,  he  is  being 
blinded  by  exaggerated  nationalism  to  the  highest  aims  » 
of  education  "  (Budde).  « 

3  Das  "  deutsche  "  Gymnasium  by  C.  Grunwald  (Head- 
master at  Friedberg  N.M.)  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  Novem- 
ber 26,  1 915.     This  headmaster  is  a  partisan  of  the  ancients  : 
"  Three  persons  have  become  one  in  us  :    The  Greek,  the 
Christian  and  the  German."     "The  Greeks    are  not  our 
models  but  our  forerunners."      "  The  duty  of   the  gymna- 
sium is  to  introduce  elements  of  antiquity  into  the  mind 
and  thence  into  German  culture."     "  The  French  and  the 

—  135  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

presumption  to  the  point  of  wishing  to  sever  all  the 
links  which  bind  German  culture  to  the  ancient  and 
the  modern  world. 


Germany  is  turning  her  back  on  antiquity,  to 
whom  she  owes  the  most  perfect  masterpieces  of  her 
classical  literature.  It  is  not  hard  to  guess  what 
fate  her  upstart  nationalism  will  mete  out  to  the 
culture  of  the  modern  nations,  those  implacable 
foes  of  Germanism  and  its  world-embracing  mission. 
The  study  of  French,  English  or  Italian  is  declared 

English  have  no  German  gymnasia,  which  cannot  be  imi- 
tated, any  more  than  one  can  imitate  our  officers,  our 
officials,  or  our  merchants.  The  unfortunate  sympathies 
of  America  show  how  essential  it  is  to  learn  foreign  lan- 
guages in  order  to  understand  the  mind  of  our  adversaries." 
These  quotations  will  indicate  the  tone  of  the  whole  article. 
Similar  suggestions  are  made  by  Albert  Espey  in  his  book 
Die  Schule  des  neuen  Deutschland.  Winke  und  Ratschldge 
tzuy  Vertiefung  des  Unterrichts  (Berlin  Concordia,  1916. 
The  school  of  New  Germany.  Hints  and  counsels  for  the 
deepening  of  teaching).  "  Only  as  much  Greek  and  Latin 
will  be  taught  as  will  enable  the  pupil  to  understand  Greek 
and  Latin  terminology  ;  the  rest  is  the  business  of  the 
Universities.  The  more  the  time  devoted  to  the  teaching 
of  living  languages,  the  more  customers  Germany  will  have 
and  the  better  will  she  be  able  to  know  her  enemies.  The 
whole  of  the  teaching  must  be  living,  biological  given  by  a 
homogeneous  teaching  body  (trained  on  a  Germanic  basis 
at  the  Universities)  ;  and  such  teaching  must  produce  men 
with  sound  judgment — men  of  iron  who  will  not  transform 
the  Christian  element  into  sentimentality,"  (Berliner  Lokal* 
Anzeiger,  March  17,  1916,  supplement). 

-136- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

to  be  unpatriotic  and  superfluous,  and  therefore 
harmful.  Every  hour  devoted  to  these  languages  is 
lost  to  the  mother  tongue.  How  can  one  to-day 
justify  the  fact  that  in  a  public  school  of  the  Empire 
eight  hours  a  week  are  devoted  to  Latin  and  two  or 
three  to  French  or  English,  when  the  mother  tongue 
is  treated  like  a  Cinderella  ?  It  has  been  proved 
by  means  of  "  new  "  statistics,  that  the  use  of 
German  is  as  widespread  in  the  world  as  that  of 
English,  and  that  French,  in  spite  of  some  slight 
increase,  is  exceeded  by  the  other  two  in  the  propor- 
tion of  three  to  one.1 

World  commerce  will  of  course  be  conducted  in 
German — every  one  knows  that.  As  for  "  culture/' 
"  legends  "  and  "  delightful  folk-songs,"  not  to  speak 
of  "  manners,  customs  and  political  institutions/1 
there  are  no  such  things  except  in  Germany  ! 2  The 
contribution  of  other  countries,  and  especially  of 
France,  is  limited  to  corrupt  literature,  disorderly 
pot-houses,  words  of  a  parasitic  meaning,  ridiculous 
fashions,  etc.,  etc.3  Let  it  therefore  be  resolved 


1  These  statistics  have  gone  the  round  of  the  German  and 
Austrian  press  (Neues  Wiener  Journal,  August   21,  1915). 

2  It  was  left  to  a  woman,  Frl.  Kathe  Schirmacher,  a  doc- 
tor of  the  University  of   Paris,  and  author  of  a  thesis  on 
Voltaire,  to  formulate    these  arguments  with  the  greatest 
rancour.     The  lecture   she  gave  at  the  Coliseum   of  Kiel, 
as  in  deed  all  her  hypergermanistic  propaganda,  was  severely 
condemned  by  the  Berliner  Tageblatt  of  November  20,  1915. 

3  French  literature  and  French  art  long  ago  became  a 
daily  necessity  to  a  section  of  the  German  press.     Frl.  Kathe 

—  137  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

that  young  Germans  shall  learn  no  more  smatterings 
of  French  and  English — the  stock-in-trade  of  a 
waiter  !  The  German  Mother-tongue,  German  dig- 
nity, German  morals,  and  German  culture  will  all 
benefit  by  such  a  determination. 

The  banishment  of  the  French  and  English  tongues 
is  chiefly  significant  on  account  of  the  spirit  which 
has  caused  it.1  We  should  have  liked  to  think, 

Schirmacher  declares  that  "  He  who  buys  a  French  novel 
is  disloyally  encouraging  the  rival  of  a  German  author." 
In  spite  of  this  it  should  be  noted  that  at  a  picture  sale  in 
Berlin  a  few  months  ago,  works  by  French  impressionist 
painters  were  sold  at  prices  which  have  never  even  been 
approached  by  those  of  German  masters.  The  cafes  of 
Berlin  are  inferior  to  those  of  Paris,  and  they  are  patronized 
by  a  different  class  of  person.  Finally,  at  the  very  outbreak 
of  war,  the  Deutscher  Sprachverein  (Society  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  German  language)  entered  into  a  ridiculous 
partnership  with  the  police  for  the  rounding  up  of  foreign 
words  used  in  commerce,  in  advertisements,  restaurants, 
offices,  etc.  The  only  parallel  to  this  proceeding  is  to  be 
found  in  the  grotesque  Austro-German  campaign  against 
Paris  fashions.  These  facts  would  furnish  several  chapters 
on  the  psychology  of  the  Germans  during  the  war. 

1  E.g.  Prof.  Dr.  H.  Gaudig,  a  member  of  the  Higher 
School  Council,  in  his  Ausblicke  in  die  Zukunft  der  deutschen 
Schule  (Leipzig,  Teubner,  1913),  adjured  his  colleagues  in 
teaching  "not  to  subject  the  boys  to  an  apprenticeship  to 
foreign  tongues,  which  are  severe  in  their  demands  and 
furnish  little  enjoyment.  They  are  a  source  of  danger 
to  the  culture  of  Germany,  our  gentle  country  (heimzart). 
"  The  place  of  Deutschtum  is  with  Christianity,  in  the  Holy 
of  Holies  ;  everything  foreign  (das  Fremdtum)  must  remain 
in  the  porch  (Frankfurter  Zeitung,  June  n,  1916:  Das 
Deutschtum  und  die  Schule,  by  R.  Muthesius).  It  should 

- 138- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

before  the  war,  that  the  hereditary  prejudice  against 
French,  compounded  as  it  is  of  hatred  and  jealousy, 
had  been  in  some  measure  blunted.  We  know  now 
that  it  has  persisted  and  that  there  is  added  to  it  the 
arrogant  contempt  of  the  parvenu.  A  movement  is 
on  foot  to  banish  French  from  secondary  schools, 
whether  for  girls  or  boys  ;  or  at  most,  etwas  franzo- 
sisch  will  be  optional. 

English  is  treated  with  a  little  more  respect,  in 
spite  of  the  intensity  of  the  odium  Britannicum 
crystallized  in  a  phrase  from  henceforth  historic, 
"  God  punish  England  !  "  English  will  be  wanted 
in  commerce.  In  the  course  of  the  present  educa- 
tional campaign  teachers  have  been  heard  to 
pronounce  judgments  on  British  "  culture  "  and 
literature  which  the  hypnotism  of  the  war  is  not 
sufficient  to  excuse.1 

Learned  philologists  have  uttered  the  oddest 
ideas  on  countries  in  which  they  have  lived,  and  to 
whose  literature  they  have  devoted  long  years  of 

be  noted  that  the  editors  of  the  paper  have  announced  that 
they  do  not  share  the  author's  views.  Of  course  the  Ger- 
man newspapers  have  registered  and  commented  on  the 
answers  made  in  France  to  inquiries  (e.g.  in  Opinion, 
Renaissance,  Petit  Journal,  etc.)  as  to  the  expediency  or 
inexpediency  of  teaching  and  learning  German  in  France 
in  the  future  (Frankfurter  Zeitung,  October  6.  Kdlnische 
Zeitung,  October  7,  Vossische  Zeitung,  November  23, 


1  See  the  study  on  the  Propaganda  allemande  jugee  par 
des  Allemands  in  the  Mercure  de  France   of  February  15, 


—  139 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

study — it  is  certainly  true  that  foreign  nations  have 
remained  very  foreign  to  them. 

The  utilitarian  point  of  view  has  called  forth  some 
extraordinary  proposals.  In  the  Upper  House  the 
representative  of  the  University  of  Breslau,  Prof. 
Dr.  Hillebrand,  proposed  substituting  the  languages 
of  Germany's  new  Eastern  friends  for  those  of  her 
Western  enemies.  All  the  representatives  of  the 
other  Prussian  Universities  and  a  certain  number  of 
distinguished  personages  signed  this  motion,  "  which 
was  well  received."1 

A  Bavarian  deputy,  actuated  by  the  same  senti- 
ments, has  broken  a  lance  in  favour  of  the  Flemish 
tongue.2  It  will  be  said  that  these  are  annexionist 
proposals,  but  they  are  certainly  typical  of  the 
educational  point  of  view. 

Let  us  be  just.  Those  who  have  laboured  in 
Germany  for  the  improvement  of  the  teaching  of 
living  languages  have  not  all  been  blinded  by 
national  fanaticism  to  the  point  of  burning  all  that 
they  have  revered.  In  this  respect,  the  ideas  of  Dr. 
Arnold  Schroer,  professor  of  English  at  the  newly 
established  commercial  academy  of  Cologne,  deserves 


1  Vossische  Zeitung,  May  25,    1916:    The    Vorwdrts  of 
June  20,  1916  (supplement),  publishes,  with  marks  of  ap- 
proval, some  extracts  of  a  leading  article  from  the  Rheinisch- 
Westfdlische   Zeitung,    which    describes    this    motion     as 
premature,  indiscreet  and  wanting  in  tact. 

2  Munchener   Neueste    Nachrichten    February    3,     1916 
(Sitting  of  the  Diet  of  February  i). 

—  140  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

some  attention.  A  study  of  them  will  enable  one 
to  form  a  just  idea  of  the  hold  of  the  national  spirit 
over  the  judgment  of  experts.1 

Herr  Schroer  insistently  demands  that  foreign 
languages,  whether  ancient  or  modern,  shall  no 
longer  take  precedence  of  the  mother  tongue. 
Teachers  of  English  and  French  should  also  be 
qualified  to  teach  German.  Only  the  elements  of 
foreign  languages  need  be  taught,  wherever  or  what- 
ever the  particular  school  may  be.  If  this  element- 
ary teaching  is  sound,  each  pupil  will  be  able  to 
perfect  himself  in  a  given  language  according  to  his, 
need  or  his  tastes,  that  is  to  say,  he  will  be  able  to 
understand  a  literary  work  with  the  aid  of  a  diction- 

1  He  has  set  forth  these  ideas  in  two  voluminous  feuil- 
letons  of  the  ultra  patriotic  Kolnische  Zeitung  (June  26, 
28  and  30,  1915,  and  October  31,  November  3  and  5,  1915). 
The  titles  are  Die  modernen  Weltsprachen  nach  dem  Welt- 
kriege,  and  Gymnasium  und  Sprachunterricht  nach  dem 
Weltkriege.  In  the  same  newspaper  (e.g.  on  August  5, 
1915)  a  certain  Dr.  Otto  Sarrazin  makes  a  violent  protest 
against  persons  who  dare  to  put  advertisements  into  a 
paper  asking  for  "governesses  who  speak  fluent  French." 
The  Berliner  Local-Anzieger  (of  June  14,  1915)  gives  a 
report  of  a  lecture  given  at  the  Central  Teaching  Institute 
of  Berlin  by  Dr.  Janell.  The  lecturer  weighs  the  opinions 
of  persons  who  wish  to  eliminate  all  enemy  tongues  from 
the  curriculum  of  the  secondary  schools,  as  well  as  of  those 
of  others  who  wish,  on  the  contrary,  to  add  to  them  Rus- 
sian, Italian  and  Japanese  "  in  order  to  learn  to  understand 
these  nations  better."  His  conclusion  is  that  English 
alone  should  be  retained  in  the  gymnasia  (from  the  3rd 
class  onwards)  and  in  the  non-classical  secondary  schools. 
—  141  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

ary  or  to  learn  to  converse.  It  is  neither  possible 
nor  desirable  that  a  German  should  know  a  foreign 
language  well  enough  to  appear  anything  but  a 
citizen  of  the  German  empire.  It  is  true  that 
German  culture  cannot  be  isolated  from  English  or 
French  culture  any  more  than  one  would  wish  to 
disconnect  it  from  antique  culture.  It  is  both 
possible  and  proper  to  teach  as  much  of  foreign 
culture  as  is  necessary  for  the  better  comprehension 
of  national  culture,  even  by  means  of  summary 
instruction,  provided  it  be  living  and  intense  and 
that  it  be  linked  up  with  lessons  on  the  mother 
tongue,  on  national  history,  etc. 

English,  which  is  spoken  by  five  hundred  million 
human  beings,  is  more  important  than  French,  which 
is  the  language  of  a  bare  eighty-eight  million. 
English  should  therefore  be  begun  in  the  gymnasium 
in  the  lower  classes  while  French  should  be  kept  for 
the  higher  ones,  where  it  might  even  be  made 
optional.  In  general,  the  tendency  has  been  to 
exaggerate  the  study  of  living  languages  during  the 
last  thirty  years  or  so.  The  "  neophilologists  "  have 
helped  to  "  disgust  "  the  students  with  such  study. 
Fortunately  for  Germany,  the  recent  movement 
towards  the  improvement  of  the  method  has  produced 
a  vast  supply  of  excellent  teachers,  and  of  excep- 
tionally good  school-books,  and  a  great  deal  of 
practical  experience.  The  circumstance  is  a  lucky 
one,  as  it  is  not  probable  that  Germans  will  be  able 
to  go  to  England  and  France  in  the  near  future  to 
-  142  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

study  the  language  :  nor  is  it  likely  that  genuine 
English  or  French  readers  or  "  assistants "  will 
care  to  come  to  Germany  to  furnish  "  material  for 
observation." 

In  short,  Herr  Schroer  does  not  preach  the  banish- 
ment of  English  or  French  from  the  domain  of 
secondary  education.  What  he  demands  is  their 
entire  subordination  to  the  teaching  of  German, 
and  the  "  exclusion  of  everything  foreign  except  the 
bare  elements  of  linguistic  study,  especially  in  the 
classical  gymnasia.  It  is  evident  that  a  knowledge 
of  foreign  nations  and  of  their  civilization  seems  to 
him  to  be  of  a  very  secondary  importance  for  the,* 
general  culture  of  his  compatriots. 


The  classical  philologists  are  lamenting  that  their 
heart  (das  Herzstuck)  is  being  torn  out  of  their  body 
by  the  merciless  curtailment  of  Greek  and  Latin. 
The  neophilologists  think  that  they  are  being  but 
ill  repaid  for  the  help  they  gave  but  lately  to  the 
"  moderns  "  against  the  "  ancients  "  by  spreading 
and  perfecting  the  teaching  of  modern  foreign 
languages.  They  resent  being  checked  in  their 
impetuous  advance  at  the  very  moment  when  the 
German  began  to  be  at  home  on  the  steps  of  the 
world.  Both  however  are  ready  to  sacrifice  their 
professional  preferences  on  the  altar  of  national 
"  Kultur."  They  have  been  persuaded  that  the  . 
"  highest  stake  "  of  the  present  war  is  this  same 
—  143  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

unique,  glorious  and  unrivalled  culture.  It  is  to 
save  German  culture  that  the  "  brave  soldiers  of  the 
Emperor  have  taken  up  arms  against  its  Latin  and 
Anglo-Saxon  rivals  and  against  the  barbarian  Slavs/' 
The  schools  would  fail  in  their  most  sacred  duty 
towards  the  Fatherland  if,  in  face  of  the  criminal 
attacks  of  enemies,  they  did  not  make  the  German 
language  the  pivot  on  which  the  whole  of  scholastic 
education  turned.  But  the  schools  which  have  up 
to  the  present  shown  the  greatest  indifference  on  this 
point  are  these  very  classical  gymnasia  ! 

At  the  beginning  of  1916,  the  union  of  German 
teachers  (Deutscher  Germanisten-Verband)  presented 
a  memorial  to  the  Prussian  Government  on  the  urgent 
need  for  the  reorganization  and  reinforcement  of 
their  teaching  in  the  secondary  schools.     In  their 
capacity   as    specialists,    they   ask   that   linguistic 
teaching  shall  be  penetrated  through  and  through 
by  the  past  and  present  life  of  the  Fatherland,  in  its 
lower  stages  by  comparison  with  the  local  dialect 
of  the  pupils,  and  in  its  higher  stages  by  comparison 
with  the  speech  of  earlier  centuries.     The  right  use 
of  the  mother  tongue,  whether  in  speaking  or  in 
writing,  will  be  greatly  facilitated  by  such  a  proceed- 
ing.    Declamation  and  readings  from  national  litera- 
ture will  be  given  in  such  a  way  that  the  individual 
tastes  of  each  pupil  will  receive  proper  development. 
The  result  of  this  will  be  that  the  young  will  be  led 
to  love  and  admire  the  riches  of  German  literature 
in  all  its  stages  from  the  legends  and  naively  popular 
—  144  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

songs  down  to  the  complex  creations  of  the  poetic 
art  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  present  day. 

The  teachers  of  German  language  and  literature 
deny  that  their  demand  for  a  larger  place  in  the 
curriculum  for  their  subject  shows  any  desire  to 
injure  teaching  of  ancient  or  modern  languages  by 
their  colleagues.  They  look  upon  an  extra  hour  a 
week  as  an  "  appropriate  and  appreciable  "  gain. 
The  number  of  hours  devoted  to  German  grammar, 
literature  and  composition  is  not,  in  their  opinion,  a 
matter  of  the  highest  importance,  inasmuch  as  a 
clever  teacher  will  be  able  to  exercise  his  pupils  in  the 
use  of  the  national  language  in  whatever  lesson  he 
happens  to  be  giving. 

But  enthusiasts  look  upon  the  demand  of  the 
specialists  as  "  too  professional,"  much  too  timid, 
and  as  having  little  connexion  'with  the  grandiose 
affirmation  of  Deutschtum  in  the  present  war  and 
with  its  providential  mission. 

"  Is  it  conceivable  that  the  teaching  of  the  mother 
tongue  should  be  confined  to  three  hours  a  week, 
when  the  same  time  is  given  to  lessons  in  every 
language  and  twice  that  amount  to  dead  languages  ? 
It  is  just  the  comparative,  historical  and  philological 
method  which  disgusts  the  children.  The  utilitarian 
point  of  view  should  take  precedence  of  all  others. 
Non  scholae,  sed  vitae.  At  no  time  in  their  previous 
history  has  it  been  the  duty  of  Germans  to  culti- 
vate their  language,  and  their  right  to  spread  it  all 
over  the  world  ;  for  the  German  tongue  is  the 
—  145  —  K 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

glorious  symbol  of  the  nation's  culture,  and  the 
essential  instrument  of  its  power.  To  concede  to  the 
teaching  of  German  a  somewhat  larger  place  in  the 
time  tables  of  the  gymnasia  and  other  schools  would 
be  of  little  use.  What  is  needed  is  an  entire  recon- 
struction of  the  educational  system,  not  on  the  lines 
indicated  by  specialists,  but  in  accordance  with  the 
dictates  of  ripe  experience  in  the  domains  of  psycho- 
logy, pedagogy  and  politics.  Such  reconstruction 
will,  sooner  or  later,  be  found  to  be  absolutely  neces- 
sary." 1  Now  these  psychological,  pedagogical  and 
socio-political  factors  have  been  clearly  brought 
before  the  public  in  thousands  of  "  war  composi- 
tions "  which  have  been  collected  to  form  part  of  the 
war  exhibition  of  the  new  pedagogic  museum  at 
Berlin."2 

1  The  above  paragraph  forms  the  conclusion  of  a  criti- 
cism of  the  memorial  of  the  German  professors  by  Prof. 
Dr.    Gramzow :     Neugestaltung   des   deutschen    Unterrichts, 
in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  June  14,  1 916. 

2  The  Central  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II.     Pedagogic  Institute 
(see  above  p.  30).     In  May,  1915,  there  were  in  the  exhibi- 
tion 7,000  compositions  dealing  with  1,500  "  war  subjects," 
written  by  the  children  in  151  primary  schools  (Vossische 
Zeitung,  May  12,  1915).     The  Headmaster  of  the  Training 
College  at  Buda-Pest,  Herr  Nagy,   sent  essays  from  150 
Hungarian  schools  of  all  grades   (Ibid.,  August  5,  1915). 
The  Neues  Wiener  Journal  (May  21  and  June  5,  1915)  speaks 
of    similar    experiments   made   in   the    Austro- Hungarian 
capitals.     The  pedagogue  Plecher  has  done  the  same  in 
Munich   (Berliner  Tageblatt,   June  2,    1915).     Dr.    Kober 
has  made  some  very  just  observations  on  the  relative  value 
of  these  "  war-compositions  "  (Kriegsaufsatze]  and  on  the 

—  146  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

The  secondary  schools  are  well  represented. 
There  are  essays  from  Germany,  Austria  and  Hun- 
gary. Sometimes  the  subjects  have  been  set  by  the 
teachers,  and  sometimes  the  choice  of  subject  and 
the  method  of  treatment  have  been  left  to  the 
pupil's  discretion. 

German  pedagogues  imagine  that  these  composi- 
tions have  revealed  interesting  "  facts."  We  fear 
that  these  childish  outpourings  on  the  war  can 
furnish  us  with  no  criticism  which  will  throw  fresh 
light  on  the  war,  its  causes,  its  vicissitudes  and  its 
consequences,  nor  on  the  methodology  of  essay 
writing,  nor  on  pedagogic  psychology,  nor  on  socio- 
political education.  We  are  ready  to  believe  that 
when  the  elementary  schoolboy  is  asked  "  How  do 
you  picture  your  life  after  the  war  ?  "  he  is  express- 
ing his  true  and  personal  feelings  in  replying  that  he 
wishes  to  be  a  farmer  and  live  in  the  country  "  be- 
cause he  will  then  be  able  to  satisfy  his  hunger." 
Equal  sincerity  is  no  doubt  shown  by  the  boy  who 
says  that  he  wishes  to  enter  the  army,  "  because 
when  I  leave  it  I  shall  be  given  a  post  in  which  I  can 
rest,"  and  the  many  children  who  look  forward  to 
learning  a  trade  "  in  order  to  earn  money  which  one 
can  spend." 

All  these  children  of  the  people  express  sentiments 
which  are  curious,  although  strongly  inspired  by 
the  conditions  of  the  moment.  But  to  allow  a 

caution  with  which  conclusions  must  be  drawn  from  them 
(Vossische  Zeitung,  June  2,  1915:    Vom  Kriegsaufsatz). 

—  147  ~ 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

pupil  in  a  gymnasium  to  write  a  long  essay,  lacking 
both  arrangement  and  style,  on  Hindenburg's l 
strategy  or  on  one  of  the  Chancellor's  speeches  in  the 
Reichstag,  is  to  commit  an  error  which  is  both 
pedagogic  and  psychologic.  Compositions  of  this 
kind  reproduce  impressions  which  are  ill-assimilated, 
false  and  artificial.  The  "  Programmes  "  (annual 
reports)  of  the  gymnasia  complacently  mention  the 
"  war  tasks  "  (Kriegsarbeit)  performed  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  authorities  in  order  to  "  enable  the 
pupils  to  share  in  great  events,"  such  as  the  celebra- 
tions of  victories  (Siegesfeiern),  lectures  on  the  war 
instead  of  morning  prayers,  etc.  The  youthful 
*  brain  has  been  stuffed  with  impressions  and  apprecia- 
!  tions  which  are  beyond  its  power  of  comprehension. 
As  for  the  reading  in  schools,  teachers  of  German 
have  been  reproached  with  paying  insufficient  atten- 
tion to  the  initiative  and  individual  taste  of  their 
pupils.  It  is  supposed  that  these  youths  are  more 
interested  in  a  vigorous  speech  of  Bismarck's  than 
in  the  purest  tirades  of  classical  literature.  This  is 
perhaps  a  fallacious  presumption  based  on  a  few 
exceptions.  The  Administration  nevertheless  recom- 
mended, some  years  ago,  that  "  pages  "  of  contem- 
porary history,  politics  and  literature  should  be 
read.  These  recommendations  have  recurred  to 
people's  minds  since  the  war  broke  out.  The 
German  bookseller  has  shown  himself  worthy  of  his 

1  Vom  Kriegsaufsatz,  by  Dr.  Kober  (Vossische  Zeitung, 
June  2,  1915  and  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  December  20,  1915). 
—  148  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

reputation.  In  a  few  months  war  books  were 
literally  swarming.1 

One  may  be  taken  as  an  example.  Prof.  Dr.  Hans 
Muhl  has  made  a  collection  2  of  select  passages  for 
use  in  secondary  schools.  In  the  first  part,  Bismarck 
and  his  contemporaries  themselves  expound  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  Empire  as  then  constituted  : 
in  another  "  the  new  Germany  under  Wilhelm  II  is 
described  by  the  great  thurifers  of  the  Emperor. 
The  last,  which  is  entitled  The  War,  is  composed 
of  speeches  by  Bethmann-Hollweg,  of  articles  on  the 
cause  of  the  conflagration,  on  the  culpability  of 
England,  etc.,  etc. 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  the  spirit  which  guides  the 
"  choice  "  of  passages  agreeable  to  the  Administra- 
tion. For  the  Minister  of  Education  is  on  the 
watch,  we  may  be  sure  of  that.  By  a  decree  dated 
May  18,  1915,  he  has  warned  the  schools  against 

1  Vossische   Zeitung,    March   26,    1916.     A   headmaster 
has  taken  the  trouble  to  review  all  the  scholastic  literature 
produced  by  the  war,  as  well  as  all  the  descriptions  of  the 
future  organization  of  the  schools.     The  same  writer  has 
also  discussed  all  the  school-books  on  history,  geography, 
German,  arithmetic,  religion,  i.e.  which  have  been  inspired 
by  the  war.     Among  them  are  many  bad  ones,  and,  says 
the  author,  "  they  must  be  very  carefully  chosen  if  they 
are  to  help  forward  the  "  culture  of  patriotic  thought  " 
(Vossische  Zeitung,  June  7,  1915). 

2  This  collection,  which  has  received  much  support  from 
the   Press,   is  entitled  Lesebuch  zur  Weltpolitik  (Reading- 
book  on  world  politics)  [pub.  by  Cotta,  in  Stuttgart].   (Koln- 
ische  Zeitung,  December  12,  1915)- 

—  149  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

collections  "  hastily  made  up  of  passages  of  French 
or  English  origin,"  "  products  of  the  lying  Press  of 
our  enemies  on  the  origins  and  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
war,  boundless  insults  offered  to  the  German  army, 
to  its  leaders,  to  the  German  people  and  to  the 
dynasty."1  Moreover  the  "  Central  Committee  for 
the  suppression  of  deleterious  literature  (Schund- 
liUeratur)  has  thought  it  necessary  to  inaugurate  an 
active  campaign  against  doubtful  war-literature 
(Kriegs-schund-littemtur).  According  to  Samuleit  of 
Neukolln,  himself  a  headmaster  and  one  of  the 
lecturers  of  the  said  Society,  the  series  of  stories 
(of  which  there  were  over  ninety  thousand  different 
fasciculis)  and  the  innumerable  and  perfectly  silly 
stories  for  girls  vanished  in  a  day  to  make  room  for 
"  war-serials  "  published  by  the  same  firms.  Nearly 
a  hundred  of  these  were  in  existence  a  few  months 
after  the  outbreak  of  war.  And  "  the  waves  of  this 
mud  are  ever  rising  and  poisoning  the  heart  of  the 
young."  "  Teachers  will  be  hard  put  to  it  to  stem 
this  torrent."  The  evil  must  be  a  serious  one,  as 
is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  the  generals  commanding 
various  districts  and  the  Courts  of  Justice  have  been 
obliged  to  interfere.2 


1  Vossische  Zeitung,  July  9,  1915. 

2  Vossische  Zeitung,  March  26,1 916.     The  traders  who  are 
responsible  for  these  works  are  the  same  persons  who  used 
to  flood  the  foreign  markets  with  their  productions.     Their 
energies  have  in  no  way  abated  now  that  they  are  obliged  to 
confine  their  attentions  to  their  own  country. 

—  150  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Persons  who  suppose  that  a  greater  latitude  in  the 
choice  of  essay-subjects  and  in  reading  will  increase 
the  pupils'  interest  in  their  German  lessons,  will  find 
that  they  are  making  a  serious  mistake.  The  transi- 
tion of  tutelage  to  the  cult  of  free  personality  which 
is  one  of  the  reproaches  levelled  at  the  secondary 
schools,  is  not  itself  without  danger.  "  Subjectiv- 
ism "  has  been  denounced  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war  as  "  one  of  the  most  dangerous  dissolvents  " 
of  "  old  German  discipline." 

It  is  also  to  be  doubted  whether  the  Administra- 
tion will  succeed  in  deriving  any  genuine  patriotic, 
national  and  civic  benefit  from  the  martial  excite- 
ment which  it  has  itself  aroused  in  its  schools. 
Excellent  results  are  however  expected  by  the 
authorities  from  the  teaching  of  history. 
*  *  * 

On  September  2,  1915,  there  appeared  in  Prussia 
some  fresh  instructions  on  the  teaching  of  History. 
The  Minister  for  Education,  having  ordered  at  the 
outbreak  of  war  that  the  "  grandiose  "  events  of  the 
moment  l  were  to  form  the  subjects  of  history 

1  Every  effort  has  been  made  to  achieve  this  end.  The 
pupils  have  been  called  upon  to  take  part  in  all  kinds  of 
war  work,  such  as  collecting  for  loans,  collecting  gold 
coins,  and  bringing  together  old  copper  utensils,  etc.  They 
have  been  appointed  to  help  with  the  driving  in  of  nails 
into  the  statues  and  symbols  of  war,  with  field  work  and 
gardening,  and  to  take  their  part  in  military  exercises. 
Every  school  organized  "  celebrations  of  victory " 
(Siegesfeiern)  to  which  the  parents  were  invited ; 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

lessons,  finally  decided  that  from  henceforth  Prussian 
and  German  history  of  the  last  fifty  years  should 
form  the  bulk  of  the  historical  teaching  in  secondary 
schools.  In  so  doing  the  Minister  makes  use  of  the 
name  of  his  imperial  master.  And  indeed  it  is  true 
that  by  his  ordinances  of  May  i,  1889,  and  February 
13,  1890,  Wilhelm  II  settled  the  question  in  favour 
of  the  nationalists,  who  deemed  it  more  important 
for  a  good  German  to  understand  the  development 
of  German  power  under  the  Hohenzollerns  than  the 
Peloponnesian  war  or  the  campaigns  of  Hannibal. 
The  Emperor  desired  that  "  young  men  should  no 
longer  be  conducted  from  the  Thermopyles  to  Ross- 
bach  and  Vionville  by  way  of  Cannes,  but  that  they 
should  go  from  Gravelotte  back  to  Montinea  and 
the  Thermopyles  by  way  of  Leuthan  and  Rossbach." 
The  schemes  of  work  for  1892  were  drawn  up  to 
suit  these  requirements ;  to-day  this  "  inversion  "  is 
an  accomplished  fact.  Children  in  the  sixth  and 
fifth  classes  will  be  told  stories  from  history  so  as 
"  to  open  their  young  minds  to  ideas  of  heroism  and 
of  the  greatness  of  history.  Ancient  history  will  be 
taught  in  the  fourth  class.  In  the  two  parts  of  the 
third  class  and  in  the  first  year  of  the  second,  the 
subject  will  be  German  history  ;  in  the  upper  second 
and  in  class  iB.  the  subject  will  be  general  history 
up  to  1786 ;  and  finally  in  lA.  the  pupils  will  be 

finally,  it  seems  that  the  headmasters  were  not  niggardly 
in  the  matter  of  giving  whole  holidays  (Schulfrei)  (Ber- 
liner Tageblatt,  September  i,  1915). 

—  152  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

taught  the  latest  German  history.  The  Minister 
has  realized  that  this  redistribution  will  greatly  over- 
load the  later  years.  He  has  therefore  allowed  the 
teachers  a  certain  latitude  so  that  they  may  organize 
(i.e.  limit)  their  teaching  of  ancient  and  modern 
history  so  as  to  give  as  much  time  as  possible  to 
contemporary  Prussian  and  German  history." 

This  ministerial  decree  met  with  a  fairly  good 
reception,  coming  as  it  did  at  a  moment  when  over- 
excited national  sentiment  is  doing  all  in  its  power 
to  forward  the  struggle  for  world-wide  domination. 
The  fact  remains,  however,  that  some  very  sensible 
criticisms  of  this  new  order  have  been  formulated. 
Prof.  Eduard  Meyer,1  who  occupies  the  chair  of 
Ancient  History  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  is  far 
too  good  an  official  to  look  upon  this  new  adminis- 
trative measure  as  involving  a  curtailment  of  his 
subject ;  on  the  contrary,  he  hopes  that  from  it  will 
result  "  a  more  scientific  use  of  ancient  history,"  as 
well  as  "  the  enfranchisement  of  the  classical 
gymnasium."  "This  type  of  school,  being  over- 
whelmed with  privileges,  used  to  attract  too  large 
and  too  much  mixed  a  crowd  of  pupils  :  it  was 
becoming  democratic.  In  order  to  live  up  to  its 
pretentious  claim  to  impart  '  general  culture/  it 
was  obliged  to  teach  everything  without  really 
studying  anything.  Not  only  was  the  standard  of 
work  constantly  on  the  decline,  but  preparation  for* 

1  In  the    Vossische   Zeitung,   September    19,    1916   (4th 
supplement). 

-  153  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

individual  scientific  work  with  a  view  to  further 
work  at  the  University  had  become  impossible. 
The  rules  stifled  all  individuality  and  all  life." 
Herr  Meyer  therefore  thinks  that  the  authorities 
are  right  to  limit  the  teaching  of  certain  periods  of 
history,  with  a  view  to  dealing  exhaustively  with 
national  history. 

But  pedagogues  must  not  forget  to  illustrate  "  the 
growth  of  German  culture  "  by  explaining  the  nature 
of  its  "  connexion  with  the  past,  with  antiquity, 
with  the  Middle  Ages  and  with  the  Renaissance  "  : 
in  other  words,  they  must  set  forth  the  "  political 
development  which  is  the  very  essence  of  all  history." 
"  Care  must  also  be  taken  not  to  become  '  one- 
sided '  like  the  English,  by  making  history  exclu- 
sively national.  The  History  of  Germany  can  only 
be  perfectly  understood  by  linking  it  to  a  simulta- 
neous study  of  the  great  historical  evolutions  of  her 
neighbours.  This  is  what  the  Government  ought  to 
have  pointed  out  without  regard  to  the  tendencies 
of  the  day." 

By  his  violent  propaganda  against  the  English 
people  *  and  his  aversion  to  democracy,  Professor 
Meyer  has  proved  that  he  does  not  desire  French  and 
English  history  to  be  taught  in  order  to  arouse  the 
sympathies  of  the  pupils  in  favour  of  these  two 
nations,  but  to  make  them  understand  "  how  German 
culture  has  asserted  itself  in  the  struggle  of  the 

1  See  the  Mercure  de  France,  February  15,  1916,  p.  577 
and  following  pages. 

—  154  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

nations  among  themselves."  As  far  as  he  is  con- 
cerned, the  "  tendencies  of  the  day,"  which  are 
negligible  to  the  Parisian  Government  are,  it  seems, 
tendencies  towards  a  future  peaceful  collaboration 
among  nations,  and  not  those  nationalistic  tendencies 
which  he  himself  has  helped  to  create. 

Dr.  Muhling  1  thinks,  with  many  of  his  colleagues, 
that  it  would  have  been  advisable  to  wait  till  after 
the  war  to  undertake  the  remodelling  of  the  teaching 
of  history.  For,  "  apart  from  the  inopportune 
confusion  which  the  practical  application  of  the  new 
order  will  certainly  cause,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the 
over-excitement  of  the  moment  will  falsify  the  spirit 
of  it.  No  one  can  blame  teachers  for  lacking  the 
objectivity  which  is  nevertheless  so  necessary  in 
instructions  where  they  cannot  avoid  speaking  of 
politics,  whether  party  politics  or  foreign  politics." 
As  early  as  1893,  the  first  Congress  of  German 
historians,  held  at  Munich,  interpreted  the  imperial 
ordinances  on  the  same  subject  in  a  sense  which 
rejects  all  bias  and  all  proselytism  on  the  part  of  the 
teachers.  "  Historical  teaching  "  said  the  Congress, 
"  does  not  aim  at  preparing  children  for  public  life 
by  a  systematic  cultivation  of  definite  political 
opinions  ;  it  aims  rather  at  giving  future  citizens 
enough  historical  knowledge  to  interest  them  in  the 
study  of  history  and  ta  arouse  in  them  a  desire  to 
participate  in  it."  Herr  Muhling  appeals  to  the 

1  In  the  Berliner  Lokal-Anzeiger,  October  3,  1915  (ist 
supplement). 

—  155  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

feeling  for  justice,  "  which  was  ever  one  of  the  noblest 
qualities  of  the  German  character."  The  schools 
must  educate  good  patriots,  not  "  fanatical  parti- 
sans." 

The  Liberal  Frankfurter  Zeitung,1  in  a  leading 
article,  had  likewise  pointed  out  the  dangers  which 
might  possibly  arise  from  the  teaching  of  quite  recent 
national  history.  "  Did  not  the  headmaster  of  a 
gymnasium  interpret  to  his  pupils  a  speech  made  by 
the  Chancellor  in  the  Reichstag  in  August  1915  !  " 
Teachers  need  a  vast  amount  of  tact  to  prevent  their 
teaching  of  contemporary  history  from  degenerating 
into  an  education  of  political  opinions.  This  class  of 
instruction  needs  just  as  delicate  handling  as  does 
that  in  religious  subjects.  The  political  element 
cannot  be  eliminated  from  it.  Now  it  is  possible  that 
the  personal  point  of  view  of  the  teacher  may  shock 
the  Administration  as  well  as  the  pupils.  From  the 
pedagogic  point  of  view,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  leave  men  who  have  left  school  the  right  to  choose 
their  own  party,  the  school  having  previously 
taught  them  to  appreciate  tolerance,  the  alpha  and 
omega  of  all  civic  teaching  I  History  has  not  the 
stability  of  the  exact  sciences,  such  as  mathematics, 
but  is  by  its  nature  problematic  :  hence  the  fact 
that  its  educative  value  consists  in  showing  exactly 
how  appreciation  of  events  can  differ  in  different 
individuals  or  nations,  even  when  these  events  are 
quite  recent. 

1  Of  October  2,  1915. 

-156- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Thus  the  principal  innovation  as  well  as  the  chief N) 
danger  in  this  remodelling  of  the  teaching  of  history 
in  the  Prussian  secondary  schools  is,  in  the  minds  of 
some,  the  liberty  left  to  teachers  and  schools,  and, 
in  the  minds  of  others,  the  "  capital "  importance 
given  to  contemporary  national  history.  It  is  true 
that  this  liberty  permits  specialization.  Classical 
schools  will  be  able  to  give  more  prominence  to 
ancient  history  if  they  like.  No  one,  not  even  the 
Administration,  will  henceforth  have  cause  to  com- 
plain of  the  non-observance  of  the  uniform  regula- 
tions brought  about  by  "  that  growing  democratiza- 
tion which  is  the  enemy  of  all  responsibility." 
Finally  the  higher  classes  in  the  gymnasia  will 
prepare  boys  properly  for  the  fruitful  liberty  prevail- 
ing in  the  Universities.  Herr  E.  Meyer  is  also  of 
this  opinion. 

Still,  that  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  there  is 
great  danger  in  allowing  teachers  of  history  too  free 
a  hand  in  regulating  the  instructions  to  be  given  on 
recent  and  contemporary  history.  The  war  propa- 
ganda has  shown  how  fragile  were  the  notions  of 
justice  and  impartiality  cherished  by  German 
professors  of  the  highest  repute.  All  have  not  the 
same  talent,  or  the  same  tact,  as  they  are  never 
tired  of  showing.  The  period  after  the  war  will  be, 
for  Germany,  a  period  of  re-grouping,  of  sharp 
political  struggles,  of  violent  discussions  "  on  the 
virtues  and  the  power  of  the  race  whose  triumph 
has  been  cut  short  by  a  jealous  and  perfidious 
-  157  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

coalition  of  hereditary  and  irreconcilable  enemies." 
We  need  only  read  the  Lokal  Anzeiger  and  the 
Frankfurter  Zeitung  to  see  that  if  the  Germans 
themselves  think  it  necessary  to  issue  a  warning 
against  chauvinistic  deviations  and  patriotic  proselyt- 
ism  in  the  very  schools,  it  is  because  they  are 
acutely  aware  of  the  dangers  thereby  entailed.  We 
on  our  side  are  convinced  that  this  danger  is  very 
real,  unless  the  commotion  is  profound  enough  to 
bring  back  the  Germans  to  a  more  sober  and  equit- 
able estimate  of  the  character  of  other  nations.  No 

one  would  complain  if  this  result  were  achieved. 
*  *  * 

The  agitation  fermented  around  the  classical 
gymnasium  will  not  succeed  in  "  sweeping  away  " 
that  institution.  As  heretofore  the  latter  will  find 
other  Willamowitz-Moellendorfs — he  was  "  War- 
Rektor  "  of  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1915 — and 
these  men  will  use  their  brilliant  powers  of  persuasion 
to  defend  the  cause  of  a  threatened  Hellenism,  before 
learned  bodies  and  in  fashionable  assemblies.  The 
Universities  and  the  Administration  will  protect 
it  out  of  esprit  de  corps.  It  will  continue  to  be 
the  favourite  school  of  the  well-to-do  classes  and 
the  "  right-thinking  "  public.  A  few  formal  con- 
cessions will  be  made  to  reformist  pedagogues,  to 
agitated  nationalists  and  to  that  section  of  the  public 
which  looks  upon  the  gymnasium  as  an  antiquated 
institution,  "  far  removed  from  the  world  and  its 
realities,  and  not  unlike  a  prisoners'  camp  where  a 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

life  of  brutalizing  routine  is  endured  far  from  the 
lights  of  the  civilized  world."1 

The  classical  gymnasium  will  thus  inspire  fresh 
confidence,  thanks  to  the  extension  of  its  lease. 

The  regulating  of  historical  teaching  is  the  first  of 
the  sacrifices  made  to  the  taste  of  the  hour.  It  is 
one  of  those  sacrifices  which  a  Prussian  Administra- 
tion would  make  without  compromising  itself.  It  is 
political  rather  than  educational,  and  it  is  this  fact 
which  most  interests  us  as  foreigners.  In  conjunc- 
tion with  the  military  education  imposed  by  the 
Administration  of  the  war,  it  will  contribute  to  the 
"  nationalization  "  of  the  secondary  school.  What 
more  could  be  demanded  before  the  end  of  the  war  ? 
The  Minister  for  Education  will  continue  his  "  patch- 
work "  (Flickwerk).  He  has  avoided  the  pitfall  of 
the  Einheitsschule  (standardized  primary  school 
based  on  ideas  of  equality)  by  promising  facilities 
for  admission  to  the  secondary  schools  to  the  element- 
ary scholars.  He  has  not  dared  to  lay  hands  on  the 
"  preparatory  classes "  of  these  establishments. 
All  the  other  matters  the  Administration  prefers  to 
leave  to  the  future  and — to  its  collaborators. 


Something  has  already  been  done  by  these  colla- 
borators. A  certain  number  of  "  privy  councillors," 

1  Prof.  Hildebrandt  of  Berlin  thus  sums  up  public  opinion 
in  the  article  of  the  Vossische  Zeitung  quoted  below  on 
p.  60,  note  2. 

—  159  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

aided  by  University  professors,  by  headmasters  and 
by  teachers  in  secondary  schools — twenty-three  tried 
officials  in  all — have  compiled  an  imposing  volume  l 
in  which  they  set  forth  the  "  possibilities  "  of  partial 
reform  on  which  the  public  and  the  Administration 
may  some  day  be  able  to  agree.  This  collection  of 
the  "  23  "  has  been  analysed  and  commented  on 
without  bitterness  in  the  Press. 2  The  ardour  of 
the  opposite  party  has  abated.  The  Minister  has 
been  able  to  have  the  schedule  of  the  movement 
drawn  up  by  his  actual  collaborators,  without  in  any 
way  involving  his  administration  in  the  matter. 

Councillor  Norrenberg,  the  editor  of  the  volume, 
takes  pains  to  point  out  that  he  has  imposed  no 
particular  scheme  of  work  upon  his  colleagues.  The 
latter  treat  any  given  subject  according  to  their 

1  Die  deutsche    hohere     Schule    nach    dem    Weltkriege — 
Beitrage  ziir   Frage   der  Weiterentwickelung  des   hoheren 
Schulwesens    gesammelt    von    Dr.    J.    Norrenberg,     Geh. 
Oberregierungsrat     (Leipzig,  Teubner,   1916).     (The    Ger- 
man   secondary   school    after   the    world-war.     Contribu- 
tions to  the  future  development  of  secondary  teaching, 
etc.) 

2  By   Prof.    Hildebrandt    (of    Berlin)   in  the    Vossische 
Zeitung  of  December  25,  1915,  under  the  significant  title 
Die  kunftigen  Schulprobleme  (School  problems  of  the  future), 
and  in  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  of  March  4,  1916,  by  Prof. 
Moldenhauer  (of  Cologne)  under  the  title  of  the  work  itself. 
The  Frankfurter  Zeitung  of  March  12,  1916,  announces  a 
similar  collection  which  will  be  issued  by  the  well-known 
schoolmaster   Dr.   Wychgram,    Educational   Councillor  of 
Liibeck.     This  work  contains  opinions  of  a  less  officious 
character. 

—  160  — 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

ability  and  express  their  own  ideas.  Sometimes 
they  contradict  one  another.  This  does  not  obscure 
the  fact  that  the  opinions  set  forth  are  largely  those 
of  the  Administration.  These  contradictions  furnish 
an  excellent  proof  that  it  is  difficult  to  satisfy  every 
one  as  well  as  the  State. 

In  bringing  forward  his  book,  the  editor  appeals 
to  the  "  confidence  of  the  public."  No  one  is  better 
aware  than  he  of  the  causes  of  the  general  mistrust 
with  which  parents  and  pupils  view  the  "  high  " 
school  and  its  teachers.  He  reveals  them  without 
more  ado  :  they  are  excessive  regulations,  annoying 
discipline,  exaggerated  tutelage  in  and  for  everything, 
over-elaborate  records  of  progress,  too  many  details 
in  the  work,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  In  short,  the  meticulous 
working  of  the  educational  system  which  puts  into 
the  background  "  the  general  and  moral  culture  of 
the  pupils  "  and  "  their  training  with  a  view  to  a 
voluntary  and  joyful  subjection  to  the  law." 

This  last  point  is  worked  out  in  an  introduction 
by  Councillor  Reinhardt,  formerly  headmaster  of 
the  gymnasium  at  Frankfurt-on  the  Main  and  famous 
for  his  work  on  the  "  reform  "  of  the  gymnasia. 
The  school,  says  Herr  Reinhardt,  should  be  an  image 
of  society.  The  pupil  there  learns  his  trade  of 
citizenship.  If  he  is  accustomed  to  be  free  within 
the  limits  imposed  by  the  necessities  of  the  school, 
he  will  live  his  life  in  the  world  without  seeking  to 
escape  from  the  control  of  the  organizations  which 
constitute  the  State.  Work  in  the  German  national 
—  161  —  i, 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

school  should  be  organized  with  a  view  to  the  require- 
ments of  public  institutions  (staatsbewusst).1  Train- 
ing in  physical  valour,  with  a  view  to  military  service, 
must  exist  side  by  side  with  mental  training.  Both 
are  fundamentally  German. 

The  "  national "  leitmotif  dominates  all  the 
contributions  to  this  collection,  though  all  are 
alleged  to  be  independent  one  of  another,  even  the 
very  professorial  dissertation  of  Dr.  Lisco,  of 
Schulpforta,  that  celebrated  centre  of  classical  study. 
The  subject  of  this  essay  is  the  unique  efficaciousness 
of  Latin  Grammar  in  the  logical  training  of  the  mind. 

Prof.  Neubauer,  writing  on  "  historical  and  civic 
instruction  "2  merely  develops  the  leading  ideas  in 
the  ministerial  decree  analysed  above.3 

"  Deutsch  "  is  the  title  given  by  Prof.  Dr.  Sprengel, 
of  Frankfurt,  to  his  study  on  the  teaching  of  the 
mother  tongue  in  the  classical  gymnasia.  The  very 

1  The  "  State  idea  "  did  not  exist  in  Germany  at  the 
time  of  the  Reform,  which  produced  the  public  school ; 
after  the  Napoleonic  wars  an  attempt  was  made  to  realize 
it,  and  in  the  course  of  the  last  fifty  years  it  has  become 
crystallized.     It  is  thus  that  the  object  of  the  modern 
German  school  is  being  determined  in  a  perfectly  organic 
manner. 

2  Dr.  Hahn's  article,  already  quoted    (on  p.  127  above) 
is  entirely  devoted  to  pointing  out  the  necessity  for  special 
civic  teaching  in  secondary  schools.     The  arguments  of 
Dr.  Hahn  reveal  a  low  nationalism.     His  lack  of  "  politi- 
cal "  spirit  was  commented  on  by  a  number  of  German 
authors  even  in  the  first  year  of  the  war. 

3  See  above  p.  151  and  following  papers. 

—  163  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

brevity  of  this  imperious  title  is  significant.  "  Not 
only  can  German  literature,  both  ancient  and 
modern,  boast  of  unique  treasures  which  amply 
suffice  for  the  education  of  the  national  spirit,  but 
German  art  is  also  rich  enough  to  enable  us  to  do 
without  models  furnished  by  other  countries  from 
France  to  Japan.1 

The  question  of  modern  foreign  languages  is 
treated  by  Councillor  Engwer,  who  knows  and 
appreciates  France,  and  by  Herr  Morsbach,  professor 
of  English  in  the  University  of  Gottingen,  a  man 
whose  judgment  of  the  value  of  the  English  language 
and  civilization  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
obscured  by  the  grotesque  Anglophobia  of  the  Ger- 
man masses.  Both  are  endeavouring  to  dissuade 
their  countrymen  from  continuing  a  rash  and  fruit- 
less struggle  against  the  civilizations  in  the  middle  of 
which  Germany  has  always  lived  and  from  which 
she  cannot  escape  :  civilizations  from  which  she  has 
derived  and  will  continue  to  derive  inestimable 
benefits.  On  the  other  hand,  the  writers  entreat 
their  fellow-Germans,  for  the  sake  of  their  own 
dignity,  to  give  up  "  their  mania  for  aping  everything 
which  comes  from  abroad  simply  because  it  is 
foreign."  "  The  best  way  of  resisting  the  ascend- 
ency of  one's  neighbour  is,  first,  to  become  well 
acquainted  with  him,  and  secondly,  to  cure  oneself 
of  one's  own  laziness  or  incapacity  to  react."  Here, 
surely,  we  find  a  reasonable  Nationalism,  and  one 
1  See  above,  p  137  note  2. 
—  163  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

which  must  be  acceptable  to  any  Government  that 
is  conscious  of  its  duties  and  has  the  interests  of  its 
country  at  heart. 

The  chapter  on  "  teachers  of  the  Catholic  Religion 
and  Religious  Education  "  was  confided  by  Coun- 
cillor Norrenberg  to  Dr.  Rauschen,  of  the  School  of 
Catholic  Theology  at  Bonn.  This  device  may  be 
due  to  a  desire  to  convey  a  warning  to  certain  clerical 
centres  at  the  Court  famed  for  their  uncompromising- 
ness  and  their  nationalist  agitations,  especially  since 
the  war.  "  Religious  instruction  also  should  contri- 
bute something  to  the  development  of  national 
feeling  by  concentrating  the  attention  of  the  young 
.  on  the  German  Church,  on  the  particularities  of  its 
forms  of  worship,  on  its  saints  and  theologians,  on  its 
Orders  and  Congregations.  But  its  chief  object 
should  be  to  teach  toleration." 

Of  course  training  in  courage,  in  view  of  armed 
service  (Wehrhaftmachung),  occupies  a  large  place 
in  Councillor  Norrenberg 's  compilation.  The  nation 
has  accepted  the  inauguration  of  this  kind  of  training 
at  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities.  "  The 
secondary  schools  must  not  only  free  themselves 
from  the  reproach  of  having  neglected  physical 
education,  but  they  must  also  create  a  model  which 
must  be  thoroughly  German  in  character,  in  method, 
in  breadth  and  in  the  reality  and  scientific  excellence 
of  its  practical  application." 

"  Biology  and  Hygiene  "  are  recommended  by 
Dr,  V.  R.  Haustein  of  Berlin  as  substitutes  for  the 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

theoretical  teaching  of  Natural  Science  in  the 
curriculum  of  secondary  schools  from  the  sixth 
class  upwards  ;  these  subjects  are  to  serve  as  an 
introduction  to  the  education  of  the  race  in  physical 
valour. 

"  Gymnastics  and  German  games — -no  English 
sports — are  to  be  taught  by  assistant  teachers  who 
have  acquired  the  facultas  docendi  in  physical  exer- 
cises at  the  University."  Such  is  the  dream 
cherished  by  Dr.  Neuendorf,  headmaster  of  a  non- 
classical  secondary  school  at  Mulheim  on  the  Rhine 
and  discussed  by  him  at  the  conclusion  of  his  import- 
ant contribution  on  the  physical  education  of  the 
young  Germans  of  to-morrow. 

And  as  public  opinion  had  accused  the  teachers  of 
being  "  innocents  "  in  the  matter  of  pedagogy,  the 
headmaster  of  a  gymnasium  in  Diisseldorf  has 
written  a  special  treatise  to  Councillor  Norrenberg's 
book  on  "  the  training  and  perfecting  of  teachers  in 
secondary  education." 

We  cannot  but  see  that  the  advisers  of  the  Minister 
for  Education  and  their  collaborators  are  making  a 
frank  attempt  to  go  half-way  to  meet  the  desiderata 
suggested  by  the  war  to  public  opinion  and  to 
teachers.  A  treatise  on  "  the  importance  of  resi- 
dential schools  for  boys  "  (Knabenalumnate)  in  the 
light  of  the  new  education  problems  is  highly  charac- 
teristic in  this  respect.  The  author  is  Dr.  Borbein. 
Boarding-schools  are  not  popular  in  Prussia.  The 
few  secondary  schools  which  undertake  the  entire 

- 165  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

charge  of  children  are  of  ancient  foundation,  and 
enjoy  an  excellent  reputation  both  socially  and 
educationally. 

The  idea  has  been  revived  with  some  persistence 
since  the  war.  In  order  to  replace  the  elite  now 
engulfed  in  the  general  cataclysm,  a  "  selection  "  is  to 
be  made  among  poor  children  and  the  war  orphans, 
and  the  "  gifted  "  among  them  are  to  be  enabled  to 
pass  to  higher  study  and  to  higher  opportunity 
(Aufstieg  der  Begabten).1  Now,  these  boarding- 
schools  can  and  will  be  used  as  nurseries  for  future 
officials,  scholars,  and  officers,  with  even  better 
results  than  the  primary  elementary  standardized 
and  common  school  (Einheitsschule)  conjoined  with 
the  secondary  school.  It  is  certainly  striking  to  see 
Prussian  Germany  come  back  to  an  idea  which  can 
boast  of  the  patronage  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Only  in  this  case  the  move  has  not  been  made  by  a 
democracy  which  has  just  shaken  off  its  fetters  and 
thinks  it  right  to  take  upon  itself  the  care  of 
the  latent  national  forces,  but  by  a  Government 
composed  of  men  of  one  caste  who  are  anxious  to 

maintain  their  position  as  rulers  of  the  State. 
*  *  * 

To  sum  up :  the  Prussian  Administration  is 
asking  for  credit.2  It  will  not  abolish  the  classical 

1  See  above,  Chapter  IV,  p.  in  and  following  pages. 

2  Its  need  for  credit  is  all  the  greater  on  account  of  the 
far  more  important  matters  which  will  engage  its  atten- 
tion after  the  war.     This  is  a  point  which  Paul  Harms  in 

—  166  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

gymnasium.  "  Let  no  one  therefore  ask  it  to 
eliminate  from  the  curriculum  the  very  subjects 
which  give  this  type  of  school  its  ideal  value  and  its 
superior  character." 

In  return,  it  will  turn  the  gymnasium  into  a  really 
national  school,  a  training  place  for  citizens  of  the 
German  State,  able  to  defend  it  at  the  point  of  the 
sword,  to  administer  it,  and  to  further  the  growth  of 
its  material  power  and  its  moral  and  scientific 
glory." 

These  are  no  doubt  fine  promises  for  a  Prussian 
Government  to  give,  but  it  will  be  interesting  to  see 
whether  they  will  be  capable  of  keeping  alive  in  the 
Germany  of  to-morrow,  exhausted  and  vanquished 
as  she  will  be,  that  fanatical  nationalism  which  has 
precipitated  her  towards  the  present  catastrophe. 
Prussia  and  Bismarck  between  them  led  the  German 
people  along  this  fatal  road.  As  early  as  1882, 
Constantin  Frantz  pointed  out  the  dangers  which 
would  thus  be  incurred  both  in  the  field  of  foreign 
politics  and  at  home.1 

Prof.  F.  W.  Foerster,  of  the  University  of  Munich, 
has  been  publicly  disowned  for  having  forcibly 
pointed  out,  since  the  war,  the  fatal  consequences 
of  the  movement  both  for  education  and  for  the 
future  of  the  German  race.  The  Austrian  poet, 
Grillparzer,  had  predicted  the  result  in  this  tragic 

the  Berliner  Tageblatt  of  January  25,  1916,  tried  to  bring 
home  to  over-zealous  reformers. 

1  Deutsche  Weltpolitik  (German  world  policy :  Chemnitz, 
1882). 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

phrase  :    "  From  humanity  via  nationality  to  besti- 
ality."1 

The  Germans  have  been  pleased  to  arouse  the 
"  sacro  egoismo  "  of  the  European  nations  in  opposi- 
tion to  their  aggressive  nationalism.  Some  persons 
have  pleaded  in  their  newspapers  for  a  "  return  " 
(Umkehr)  and  a  "  new  orientation  "  (Neuorientir- 
ung}.  The  question  is,  will  Germany  ever  consent 
to  such  a  thing  ?  Greek  Antiquity,  even  more  than 
Christianity,  seemed  to  be  a  common  ground  on 
which  the  nations  might  meet,  for  Greek  Antiquity 
is  the  root  from  which  sprang  the  civilization  of 
them  all. 2  The  recent  attacks  on  the  classical  humani- 
ties and  the  earliest  official  and  officious  results  do 
not  promise  well  for  the  "  future  humanism  "  of  the 
Germany  of  to-morrow.  Let  us  continue  to  watch 
her  schools  and  the  teaching  given  in  them  ;  the 
system  pedagogy  thus  revealed  will  prove  a  sure 
barometer  whereby  to  gauge  her  policy. 

1  Von  der  Humanitdt  durch   die  Nationalitat  zur   Bes- 
tialitdt. 

2  In   June,   1916,   de  Berzeviczy,  the   President  of  the 
Academy  of  Science  of  Hungary,   gave  a  lecture  to  the 
Viennese  Union  of  "  the  Friends  of  the  Classical  Gymnasium 
in  Austria,"  on  the  theme,  "  Humanism  and  the  World- 
war."     It    will    be  the    mission  of  the    humanities,   and 
especially  of  the  Greek  humanities,  to  reconcile  the  civil- 
ized nations  after  the    war   (Vossische  Zeitung,   June   13, 
1916). 


—  168  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Political  Role  of  the  Universities 

AT  the  end  of  July  1914,  while  an  enthusiastic 
crowd  was  gathered  in  Unter-den-Linden  to 
await  the  fateful  nod  of  the  "  All-highest  War  Lord," 
the  professors  of  the  University  of  Berlin  had  met 
together  to  appoint  a  new  Rector.  They  too  showed 
anxiety.  But  it  was  only  anxiety  to  learn  whether 
William  II  had  not  at  the  last  moment  flinched  from 
facing  the  consequences  of  his  decision.  They  knew 
his  temperament  with  its  mixture  of  impulsiveness 
and  timidity.  The  clamour  of  the  mob  from  outside 
re-assured  them.  It  was  the  call  to  arms.  "  The 
flash  of  enthusiasm,"  says  a  witness,1  "was  caught 
up  by  the  learned  conclave.  Those  of  long  standing, 
and  who  had  seen  1870  and  even  1866,  were  not  the 
last  to  show  a  burning  zeal.  The  University  of 
Berlin  lived  through  moments  to  be  mentioned  with 
pride  side  by  side  with  the  memorable  days  of  the 
wars  of  freedom." 

German  professors  are  never  weary  of  comparing 
1914  with  1813.    To  give  an  idea  of  the  eagerness  of 
the  Volunteers  of  1915,  hastening  to  join  the  colours, 
1  Vossische  Zeitung,  July  28,  1915. 
—  169  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

they  instance  how  Niebuhr  had  described  the  rising 
against  Napoleon.  The  historian  had  compared  it 
"  to  crowds  who  rush  to  the  bakers'  shops  in  time  of 
famine." 

This  simile  could  not  fail  to  impress  those  who  were 
present  at  the  daily  "  Polonaison  "l  danced  by  the 
populace  of  Berlin,  since  1914,  in  front  of  the  pro- 
vision shops  to  secure  food.  There  have  been 
years,  especially  in  the  Universities,  when  all  were 
bent  upon  calling  back  to  memory  the  "  glorious  " 
epoch  of  liberation.  It  was  an  episode  in  history 
more  easy  to  avow  than  the  trick  of  the  telegram 
from  Ems,  and  its  romantic  vein  lent  itself  to  the 
patriotic  staging  set  up  everywhere  in  view  of  the 
world-wide  preponderance  of  Germany. 

Nevertheless,  the  Germany  of  the  twentieth 
century,  united  and  free,  rich  and  powerful,  was  in 
no  way  a  reminder  of  the  same  Germany  crushed  and 
beaten  by  Napoleon.  The  Empire  newly  restored 
to  life  knew  no  shackles  except  the  resistance  of  the 
free  nations  against  the  foreign  sway.  Wilhelm  II 
is  said  to  be  as  irresolute  and  as  enamoured  of  peace 
as  was  his  ancestor  a  century  before.  But  while 
history  has  imputed  it  for  righteousness  to  such  men 
as  Fichte  and  Boeckh  that  they  aided  Frederick 
William  III  to  rouse  up  his  energy  so  lately  sapped 
by  humiliation,  it  will  on  the  other  hand  severely 

1  This  expression  has  been  invented  by  the  Berlin  papers 
to  describe  the  movements  of  the  crowds  formed  up  before 
the  provision  shops. 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

judge  their  successors  and  imitators,  who,  ruled  over 
as  they  are  by  a  monarch  who  is  a  weak  politician, 
have  left  the  generous  impulses  of  the  German  people 
towards  a  liberal  and  peaceful  emancipation  to 
languish  in  Prussian  prisons. 

It  was  Bismarck  who  riveted  the  last  links  of  the 
chain  which  has  enslaved  the  German  Universities 
to  the  policy  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  Since  1870 
they  have  exerted  an  intense  political  activity  l  in 
order  to  consolidate  and  aggrandize  the  Empire 
knowing  it  to  have  been  called  into  being  by  an  act 
of  violence,  and  to  be  only  maintainable  by  a  like 
means.  Their  scientific  activity  has  certainly  en- 
abled them  to  forge  engines  of  war  both  unheard-of 
and  barbarous.  But  their  crowning  crime  is  to  have 
fashioned,  by  dint  of  learning  and  method,  the 
incredible  state  of  mind  which  can  speak  of  "  scraps 
of  paper,"  and  to  have  overthrown2  throughout  a 
whole  nation  the  elementary  notions  on  which 
modern  society  is  founded.  The  German  Universi- 
ties, zealous  in  the  service  of  Bismarck  and  Moltke, 
have  employed  all  their  resources  in  preparing  the 

1  Staatsbewusste  nationale  Stimmungsmache.     The    news- 
papers use  a  term  which  lends  itself  better,  i.e.  Brunnen- 
vergiftung,  "  poisoning  of  the  wells,"  in  order  to  denote  the 
action  of  troubling  the  springs  of  thought  and  of  inflaming 
public  opinion  by  "  infamous  reports  "  and  by  imagination 
calculated  to  produce  a  desired  effect. 

2  University  men  of  repute  have  discoursed  on  these 
subversions  of   traditional  values,    Umwertung  der  Werte, 
Umlernen,  etc.,  but  in  a  sense  denoting  "  progress." 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

violent  attack  of  Germanism  against  the  Latin, 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Slavonic  world.  The  dangerous 
tradition  of  Deutschland  iiber  alles  in  der  Welt  is 
the  work  of  their  professors.  The  military  party 
had  need  of  this  superstition  in  order  to  retain  their 
power  over  the  Government  to  drag  the  nation  with 
them  towards  the  bloody  quarry.  The  effect 
produced  in  July,  1914,  by  the  official  impostors  of 
"  the  Fatherland  attacked,"  was  their  first  "  war 
triumph." 


Ninety-three  intellectuals,  for  the  most  part 
professors  of  Universities,  were  found  ready  in 
October,  1914,  to  fling  the  following  formidable  lie 
in  the  face  of  the  civilized  world. 

"It  is  not  true  that  Germany  caused  this  war. 
Neither  the  people,  nor  the  Government,  nor  the 
Emperor  desired  it.  On  the  German  side  the 
impossible  was  attempted  in  order  to  prevent  it. 
Of  this  the  whole  world  has  authentic  proof.  How 
many  times  has  not  Wilhelm  II  shown,  during  the 
twenty-six  years  of  his  reign,  that  he  was  the  pro- 
tector of  the  world's  peace  ?  Our  enemies  have 
acknowledged  it  often  themselves.  The  truth  is 
that  this  same  Emperor,  whom  they  now  dare  to  look 
on  as  an  Attila,  has  for  many  lustres  been  the 
object  of  their  mockery  only  on  account  of  his 
unshakable  love  for  peace.  Only  when  a  superior 
force,  long  on  the  watch  near  the  frontier,  fell  upon 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

our  country  from  three  sides,  only  then  did  the 
German  people  rise  as  one  man." 

It  matters  little  that  among  the  signatures  there 
were  some  of  noblemen  of  small  importance ;  that 
the  compliance  of  certain  of  them  was  obtained  by 
surprise ;  that  shame  got  the  better  of  others. 
Every  one  knows  how  great  is  the  influence  of 
Harnack,1  Willamowitz-Moellendorf,  and  a  dozen 
others,  like  them,  all  illustrious  professors  and  well- 
known  courtiers.  Harnack  understood  by  the  very 
language  of  the  leaders  that  the  signatories  spoke 
in  the  name  of  all  their  caste,  and  that  the  uncon- 
ditional abdication  of  German  science  in  favour  of 
the  policy  of  the  Government  and  the  military 
camarilla  was  final. 

German  science  has  been,  from  this  moment,  an 
object  of  suspicion.  The  humanitarian  idealism 
which  won  sympathy  on  account  of  the  brutal  repres- 
sion it  suffered  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  especially  in  1848,  has  now  been  "  un- 
learnt "  ;  objectivity,  the  inexorable  discipline  of 
scientific  methods,  even  honesty,  are  less  than  ever 
the  monopoly  of  trans-Rhenish  learning.  Science, 
held  captive  by  a  creed  even  more  exacting  than  the 
Christian  faith,  has  become  as  cruel  as  was  the  latter 

1  If  the  theologian,  His  Excellent  Herr  von  Harnack 
(a  native  of  the  Baltic  provinces  like  Kant,  whom  he  in- 
vokes), is  not  the  sole  author  of  the  manifesto,  it  would 
appear  that  he  collaborated  in  its  composition.  The  tone 
of  it  towards  the  end  is  sufficiently  pastoral. 

—  173  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

during  its  most  acute  paroxysms  of  orthodoxy. 
The  German  people  are  "  the  chosen  "  of  the  "  old 
Teutonic  god,"  to  spread  the  gospel  of  its  "  Kultur," 
either  by  gentle  or  violent  means.  Its  mission  is  to 
save  Europe  and  the  world,  by  its  virtues,  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral,  from  the  decrepitude  of  effete 
civilizations,  and  to  preserve  it  from  the  Slavonic 
menace  and  the  Asiatic  peril.  "  Take  our  word  for 
it,"  cried  the  ninety-three  to  their  hesitating  col- 
leagues and  to  the  astounded  world,  "  we  will  pledge 
our  name  and  our  honour  to  prove  our  saying  true." 
Germany  took  them  at  their  word.  She  grasped  the 
sword  made  ready  for  the  crusade  of  blood.  But 

the  world  has  rejected  the  imposture. 
*  *  * 

Towards  the  middle  of  July,  a  sinister  agitation 
was  afoot  in  the  lecture  halls  of  the  University  of 
Berlin.  The  students  seemed  to  be  looking  some- 
thing steadily  in  the  face.  Meeting  each  other  in 
the  corridors,  the  question  asked  was  no  longer  : 
'*  Are  you  going  to  enlist  ?  "  ;  but  "  Where  will  you 
join  up  ?  "  At  the  other  end  of  the  empire,  at 
Tubingen,  that  peaceful  Swabian  University  so  dear 
to  theologians,  the  students'  quarters  resounded  from 
the  time  of  the  Austrian  ultimatum  with  war  songs 
dating  from  the  war  of  liberation. 

On  the  26th,  their  Austrian  comrades  were  called 
up,  by  telegraph.  The  tumultuous  demonstrations 
in  favour  of  war  then  reached  the  street,  and  were 
continued  in  front  of  the  dwellings  of  the  rector,  the 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

burgomaster  and  the  military  commander.  The 
uproar  by  day  and  by  night  was  so  great,  that  the 
"  Philistines  "  who  were  still  "  hoping  "  (i.e.  that 
nothing  would  come  of  it)  were  obliged  to  request 
the  authorities  to  put  a  stop  to  such  patriotic  orgies. 

Both  students  and  professors  had  stolen  a  march 
on  the  civilians.  The  "  intellectuals "  felt  no 
surprise  at  the  course  of  events  which  coincided 
with  their  desires.  To  them  it  will  for  ever  be 
impossible  to  invoke  the  excuse  of  patriotism  at  bay : 
( '  right  or  wrong,  my  country. ' '  They  attempted  every- 
thing to  prevent  German  ambitions  from  "  sticking 
in  the  mud  of  peace  palaver."  They  were  only 
waiting  for  the  signal.  "  Large  sections  of  society 
greeted  the  crime  of  Sarajevo  as  the  God-sent  oppor- 
tunity." x 

Certain  University  men  of  distinction  whom  Wil- 
helm  II  admitted  to  his  table  managed  to  turn  to 
good  account  what  they  had  observed  of  their  host 
in  moments  of  intimacy.  They  knew  him  to  be 
inconsistent,  fond  of  bold  strokes  (witness  the 
journey  to  Tangiers),  but  drawing  back  at  once 
before  the  consequences  of  his  impulsive  acts.  They 
found  fault  with  the  "  staunch  love  of  peace,"  not 
only  by  pamphlets  more  or  less  anonymous,  or  by 
accusing  foreign  caricaturists  of  "  making  fun  of 
him,"  but  above  all  by  exaggerating  the  dangers, 
exterior  and  interior,  which  according  to  them  this 

1  Liebknecht,    speaking   in   the    Prussian    Chamber   on 
March  16,  1915. 

-  175  - 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

lover  of  peace  would  draw  down  on  the  empire  in 
days  to  come. 

Their  scientific  demonstrations  (Kultur-historische 
Untersuchungen)  on  the  reality  of  the  culture-bearing 
mission  of  the  German  race,  did  but  nurse  and 
encourage  the  innate  megalomania  of  Wilhelm  II 
and  at  the  same  time  point  out  to  him  his  duty. 

And  then  were  they  not  also  the  natural  allies  of 
the  army,  whose  aspirations  were  blended  and  one 
with  their  own,  and  have  they  not  always  worked 
together  for  the  unification  of  the  German  counties, 
"  for  the  Emperor  and  the  Empire  "  (fur  Kaiser  und 
Reich)  ? 

The  minds  of  the  "  select  few  "  were  as  completely 
prepared  as  was  the  military  organization.  The 
phantom  of  the  empire  at  bay  was  created  by  the 
same  theorists  who  had  invented  and  preached  the 
"  inevitable "  expansion  of  "  Deutschtum."  By 
signing,  "  in  good  faith,"  as  they  would  fain  have 
us  now  believe,  the  call  to  arms  for  the  defence  of 
the  violated  Fatherland,  they  have  shown  themselves 
to  be  the  accomplices  of  a  political  and  traditional 
expedient  which  was  meant  to  gain  over  the  "  philis- 
tines  "  and  the  populace,  and  still  more  to  enable 
Germany  to  make  the  greatest  and  most  merciless 

use  of  the  anticipated  victory. 

*  *  * 

One  had  got  into  the  habit  of  seeing  nothing  more 
in  the  German   Universities  than  the  univcrsitas 
litterarum   et   scientiarum,    in   which   masters   and 
—  176  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

studious  pupils  accumulated,  with  pedantic  care,  even 
the  most  trifling  facts  which  might  help  to  widen 
human  knowledge.  Their  copious  and  elaborated 
methods  were  taken  as  models,  and  the  professors' 
independence  of  thought  and  speech,  and  their 
freedom  in  research  and  instruction,  were  much 
vaunted.  But  sufficient  attention  was  not  paid  to 
the  close  union  between  the  Universities  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  directing  hierarchy  of  the  Universities. 
The  preponderating  influence  assumed  by  the 
University  of  Berlin  on  the  federal  states  especially 
since  1870  has  been  only  too  often  forgotten. 

It  was  in  no  way  the  intention  of  the  Hohenzol- 
lerns,  when  laying  hands  on  the  elementary  and 
secondary  schools,  to  allow  their  Universities  to  live 
as  republics.  Rather,  they  endowed  them  with 
their  names  and  their  patronage.  Being  poor, 
though  playing  the  part  of  Maecenas,  they  assured 
to  them,  together  with  all  sorts  of  honours,  the 
munificence  of  the  public  funds.  Without  neglecting 
the  moral  power  of  the  Church  (Bismarck  for  having 
attempted  this  was  forced  to  go  to  Canossa)  they 
made  that  of  the  Universities  even  greater.  They 
will  therefore  be  more  docile  in  justifying  the  policy 
of  their  prince  and  more  national  in  paving  the  way 
for  it  than  the  Catholic  Church  has  shown  herself 
at  certain  periods.  The  King  is  de  facto  the  Grand 
Master  of  his  Universities.  He  makes  a  point  of  seeing 
that  only  those  who  think  as  he  wishes  shall  teach 
therein.  The  right  of  professorial  colleges  to  receive 
—  177—  M 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

into  their  body  colleagues  of  their  own  choosing  is 
subject  to  royal  sanction.  Bismarck  obtruded  upon 
them  appointments  against  which  the  most  indignant 
remonstrances  remained  powerless.  Before  him, 
Prussian  Governments  had  not  scrupled  to  send  to 
prison  masters  from  the  higher  scholastic  institutions 
who  thought  themselves  free,  by  right  of  office,  to 
profess  opinions  contrary  to  those  of  the  authorities. 
Except  for  this  subjection  to  the  Emperor,  the 
King  and  the  Government,  the  Universities  are  free 
and  made  much  of.  Financial  considerations  are 
never  an  obstacle,  when  it  is  a  question  of  attracting 
some  specialist  by  offering  him  the  stipend  he 
demands,  of  splitting  up  the  classes,  or  of  stocking 
libraries  and  collections  and  of  increasing  the 
number  of  laboratories.  There  lies  the  secret  of  the 
innumerable  and  rapid  practical  applications  of 
science  by  which  the  army  profits  as  much  as  does 
industry  and  trade  ;  and  here  lies  also  the  cause  of 
the  extravagant  publicity  which  has  served  to  spread 
abroad  and  exalt  Deutschtum  both  within  and  beyond 
the  German  frontiers. 


The  governing  body  of  Berlin  have  never  made  a 
mystery  of  the  political  mission  of  their  Universities. 

After  Jena  the  Prussian  treasury  was  empty  and 
the  resources  of  the  country  exhausted.  None  the 
less  Friedrich  Wilhelm  founded  two  Universities,  one 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

at  Berlin  in  1810  and  one  at  Breslau  1  a  year  later. 
The  name  of  Fichte  alone  would  have  justified  the 
founding  of  the  Berlin  University.  The  influence  of 
Breslau  on  the  political  dealings  of  Prussia  in  relation 
to  Russia  and  Austria  has  ended  in  the  enterprise 
which  is  now  the  objective  of  the  armies  on  the 
eastern  front. 

Bismarck  created  the  University  of  Strasburg  even 
before  he  had  given  a  constitution  to  the  annexed 
country.  He  placed  it  under  the  immediate  patron- 
age of  the  Emperor.  He  desired  it  to  be  grand  and 
imposing.  The  most  distinguished  lights  of  German 
science  were  sent  there,  tempted  by  stipends  which 
would  have  seduced  the  least  patriotic  among  them. 
Opposite  to  the  University,  he  erected  the  imperial 
"  burg  "  (citadel)  and  close  by  it  the  Parliament. 
As  far  as  the  Landesausschuss  was  concerned  on  July 
14,  1876,  the  Alsatian  deputies,  in  great  humility, 
dared  to  express  their  uneasiness  at  the  charges 
thrown  on  the  poor  local  budget  by  the  construction 
and  upkeep  of  the  University  buildings  :  they  were 
answered  from  the  ministerial  bench,  as  follows  : 
"  The  University  has  not  been  founded  for  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  but  in  the  interests  of  the  empire."  This 
was  stated,  moreover,  in  the  foundation  title  deeds, 
and  emphatically  repeated,  inter  pocula  at  the 
solemnities  of  the  inauguration,  in  the  presence  of 
the  highest  personages  of  the  empire.  The  small 

1  By  the  incorporation  of  an  ancient  foundation  (1701) 
with  that  of  Frankfurt -on-the-Oder. 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

nation  of  Alsace-Lorraine  has  resisted  this  high- 
handed Germanization,  in  spite  of  or  rather  because 
of  the  zeal  of  the  apostles  of  the  University.  The 
Stadthalter  of  Strasburg  and  the  Central  Government 
at  Berlin,  might  have  saved  themselves  the  trouble  of 
calling  into  consultation  the  j  urists  of  the  University 
and  of  listening  to  the  philologists,  historians  and 
theologians,  who,  with  a  great  re-inforcement  of 
ancient  documents,  fixed  and  decided  the  best  manner 
of  alienating  the  original  population.  The  political 
aspect  of  the  Strasburg  University  has  proved  a 
lamentable  check-mate  for  the  Germans,  unless  they 
see  in  it  a  success,  in  so  far  as  it  has  kept  alive  their 
particular  hatred  of  the  hereditary  enemy  of  the  west. 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  the  front,  July  14, 
1914,  Wilhelm  II  insisted  on  having  the  writs  signed 
appointing  the  professors  to  the  latest  new-comer 
among  German  Universities,  that  of  Frankfurt-on- 
the-Main. 

The  citizens  of  this  ancient  free  city,  patricians  of 
finance,  commerce,  and  local  manufactures,  had 
been  inspired  by  civic  patriotism  to  assure  to  their 
city  the  prosperity  to  which  they  themselves  owed 
their  wealth.  With  the  surplus  of  their  fortunes 
they  had  founded  institutions  everywhere  spoken  of 
as  models  of  their  kind  ;  for  instance,  the  Rothschild 
Library,  the  clinics  and  laboratories  where  Ehrlich 
carried  on  his  research,  the  Academy  of  Economic 
and  Commercial  Sciences,  etc.  Their  independent 
and  local  existence  does  not  seem  to  have  hampered 
—  180  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

the  development  of  these  foundations.  But  the 
centralizing  spirit  of  the  Germans  of  the  empire  can 
in  no  wise  tolerate  anything  which  calls  to  mind  the 
particularism  of  old  times,  and  still  less  the  indivi- 
dualism of  the  English  or  Americans.  Thus  a" 
politically  minded  burgomaster  conceived  the  plan 
of  bringing  together  the  scattered  elements  so  as  to 
form  a  University,  ostensibly  to  strengthen  them 
by  union  and  by  giving  them  the  standing  indis- 
pensable to  the  glory  of  his  town,  but  in  truth  to 
open  the  Frankfurt  institution  to  the  influence  of 
other  German  Universities.  The  pompous  cere- 
monies of  the  opening  were  put  off  till  after  the  war, 
in  order  to  allow  the  Emperor  to  come  in  person  to 
consecrate  this  new  centre  of.  science  to  the  service 
of  the  empire  and  of  his  House. 

Scarcely  had  the  German  armies  possessed  them- 
selves of  Belgium  and  Poland  than  the  military 
commanders  Von  Bissing  and  Von  Beseler  turned 
their  attention  respectively  to  opening  the  University 
of  Ghent,  and  to  reorganizing  that  of  Warsaw.  The 
occupation  of  these  countries  being  prolonged, 
alas  !  the  lieutenants  of  Wilhelm  II  have  been  able  to 
carry  out  in  part  the  orders  they  received  from  Berlin.' 
The  means  which  they  employed  to  gain  over  the 
more  intelligent  population  of  the  invaded  countries, 
going  from  hypocritical  promises  to  constraint  by 
violence,1  prove  conclusively  that  a  University, 

1  For  these  very  German  methods  the  equally  German 
phrase  is  Zucker  und  Peitsche  (sugar  and  whips). 
—  181  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

according   to   the   German   conception,    is   only   a 

political  instrument  for  slavery  and  domination. 
*  *  * 

"The  University  of  Berlin  camped  opposite  the  Kings 
palace  is  the  intellectual  guard  of  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern."  So  exclaimed  Professor  du  Bois-Reymond 
of  Berlin,  in  a  speech  made  on  August  5,1870.  This 
duty  of  guardianship  Bismarck,  and  after  him 
Wilhelm  II,  have  divided  among  all  the  Universities 
of  the  empire  and  even  those  lying  beyond  it.  The 
exchange  of  professors  and  students  that  the  Univer- 
sities of  German  formation  and  language  continue  to 
arrange  among  themselves  across  the  political 
frontiers,  has  facilitated  this  expression. 

No  country  in  the  world  has  established  the 
"  radiating  "  system  of  Universities  on  so  methodical 
a  basis.  The  centre  is  at  Berlin.  The  professors, 
honoured  with  the  title  of  privy  councillors  of  State, 
both  ordinary  and  extraordinary,  received  at  court 
and  influential  in  the  higher  administrations,  give 
the  tone  to  their  colleagues  of  Leipzig,  Munich, 
Tubingen  and  Heidelberg,  etc.  As  far  as  the  Univer- 
sities are  concerned,  particularism — Bismarck's  night- 
mare— has  ceased  to  exist. 

The  influence  of  imperial  professors  makes  itself 
felt  in  Austria  Hungary,  in  German  Switzerland  and 
beyond  throughout  the  Balkans  and  as  far  as 
Constantinople.  The  serfdom  of  Austro-Hungary 
is  complete,  thanks  to  the  defenders  it  has  found  in 
the  professorial  chairs  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  A 
—  182  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

whole  gang  of  German  doctors  have  been  labouring, 
since  war  began,  at  the  organization  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Constantinople. 

Concurrently  with  this  expanding,  the  German 
Universities  increase  their  strength  by  concentrating 
their  operations.  At  this  moment  there  may  be 
observed  in  Germany  a  tendency  to  incorporate 
with  the  real  Universities,  the  academies  and  schools 
for  special  study  (Hochschulen),  technical  schools* 
schools  of  mining  and  of  forestry,  agricultural 
colleges,  veterinary  colleges,  commercial  schools, 
colonial  institutes,  schools  of  tropical  medicines, 
of  naval  architecture  and  the  like.  There  was 
a  time  when  these  establishments  were  regarded 
with  a  certain  disdain  by  University  men. 
But  now  that  the  admission  to  these  schools 
has  been  made  dependent  on  the  possession  of  the 
leaving  certificate  of  a  secondary  school,  and  that 
they  have  obtained  the  privilege  of  conferring  a 
Doctor's  Degree,  a  marked  junction  has  been  effected. 
Even  before  the  war,  certain  of  the  Universities, 
Berlin  and  Leipzig  for  example,  had  incorporated 
with  themselves  the  provincial  higher  schools,  even 
when  they  lay  outside  the  seat  of  the  said  Universi- 
ties. This  arrangement  was  desired  for  educa-] 
tional  and  government  reasons.  The  Universities 
strengthen  their  theoretical  teaching  of  pure^sciences 
by  institutes  of  practical  science,  while  technical 
schools  complete  the  student's  practical  knowledge 
by  instruction. 

-183- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

But  Germany  does  not  centralize  for  reasons  of 
economy,  so  as  to  avoid  paying  for  the  same  thing 
twice  :  she  does  it  to  increase  the  output  of  her 
strength  and  to  have  it  well  in  hand  in  case  of  need. 1 
The  services  rendered  by  the  practical  schools  are 
made  the  most  of  in  favour  of  this  concentration.2 
In  this  we  see  the  principal  source  of  the  subsequent 
might  of  the  empire  solidly  concentrated.  The 
Faculties  of  the  natural  sciences  with  their  annexes 
of  laboratories,  institutes  for  research  3  work  and 
practical  schools,  will  furnish  the  instrumental  force. 
To  the  Faculties  of  philosophical  and  historical 
science  will  be  added  institutes  of  a  like  nature,4  in 
order  not  to  let  intellectual  and  moral  force  fall  into 
decay.  The  two  forces  dovetail  into  each  other, 
their  action  is  mutual.  This  is  "  Kultur." 

Thus  is  fulfilled  the  prayer  of  the  too  famous 
Professor  Lamprecht,  of  Leipzig,  the  historian  of 
Wilhelm  II  and  the  prophet  of  Pan-Germanism.  His 
cry  was  "  Let  the  Universities  endeavour  to  feel  their 


1  Unsere   Hochschulen,    und   die   Auforderungen   des   20 
Jahrhunderts,  by  Professor  Reidler  (1898). 

2  Zusammenfassung     des   Hochschulbetriebs,   by   Dr.    E. 
Uetrecht  (Tdgliche  Rundschau,  September  25,  1916). 

3  The  extra-university  institutes,  such  as  the  "Wilhelm 
II  foundation  "  and  the  imperial  dependencies  of  the  great 
industries  may  be  classed  with  these  bodies. 

4  For  instance,  the  twelve  institutes  of  historical,  philo- 
logical and  geographical  sciences,  etc.,    etc.,    founded   at 
Leipzig  by  Lamprecht. 

—  184  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

way  more  speedily  towards  the  new  end  in  view, 
inevitable  because  founded  on  German  culture" 

Of  this  said  "  Kultur  "  the  Universities  are  the 
factories.  The  management  is  entrusted  to  the 
professors.  All  that  they  do  and  produce  there, 
in  apparent  liberty,  is  done  and  produced  for  their 
employer,  the  State.  The  individual  is  benefited 
by  "  Kultur,"  but  only  on  condition  that  it  is 
through  the  medium  of  the  State.  There  is  nothing 
democratic  about  it.  The  individual  is  human 
matter  to  be  thoroughly  kneaded  into  shape  (durch- 
kneten).  The  typical  German,  individualistic  and 
idealistic,  has  too  long  been  left  to  himself  and  has 
therefore  remained  the  despised  "  Hodge  "  in  spite 
of  the  part  he  has  played  in  history  and  in  the 
civilization  of  Europe ;  he  must  have  his  place  in 
the  sun,  respected  in  every  part  of  the  globe  to 
which  he  is  pleased  to  go,  and  must  be  able  to  speak 
with  authority.  For  he  has  the  right  so  to  do  by 
virtue  of  his  "  Kultur,"  which  also  will  permit  him 
to  achieve  these  ends~with  strength  and  ability, 
since  it  teaches  him  to  submit  unreservedly  and 
"  joyfully  "  to  the  order  and  discipline  which,  thanks 
to  the  army,  the  State  has  set  up  so  as  to  be  strong 
in  his  stead. 

The  army  is  the  last  word  of  that  "  Kultur," 
which  the  German  Universities  seek  to  spread  abroad. 
Science,  which  is  the  essence  of  all  culture,  of  what- 
ever sort,  allows  itself  no  other  form  of  expansion 
but  in  nationalizing  itself  in  the  service  of  the  prince. 
-185  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

"  To  knead  human  material  by  a  scientifically 
exact  instrumental  force,  having  nevertheless  within 
itself  its  own  life  and  movement,  as  represented  in 
the  highest  degree  of  perfection  by  our  army.  This 
is  what  has  been  obtained  by  the  guiding  collabora- 
tion of  German  science,  which  has  innoculated  the 
entire  body  of  the  nation  with  the  stimulating 
lymph  of  a  more  emphatic  and  clearer  consciousness 
of  itself."1 

"  The  seeds  which  the  German  Universities  have 
nourished  with  so  much  care  have  grown  up  to  full 
stature  during  this  war.  The  ancient  spirit  of  love 
for  the  Fatherland  which  showed  itself  during  the 
wars  of  freedom  has  ever  since  been  cultivated  in 
the  Universities.  In  the  management  of  the  present 
war,  modern  military  teaching  unites  with  this 
spirit,  with  this  consciousness  of  ourselves  and  this 
power  of  action :  it  is  the  mobilization  of  all  science."2 

There  are  two  estimates  of  the  work  accomplished 
by  the  German  Universities.  Both  are  founded  on  the 
experiences  of  the  war.  The  first  was  drawn  up  in 
July,  1915,  by  a  member  of  a  University  for  the 
readers  of  the  Liberal  Vossische  Zeitung.  The  second 
is  likewise  from  the  hand  of  a  University  man,  who 
addressed  himself  in  September,  1916,  to  the  orthodox 

1  The   Vossische  Zeitung,  July  12,   1915.     Deutschlands 
Hochschulen  im  Kriege,  by  Franz  Servaes,  collaborator  of 
the  Vossische  Zeitung,  the  accredited  organ  of  the  higher 
teaching  body. 

2  Dr.   E.   Uetrecht,  at    the  beginning  of  the  article  in 
the  Tdgliche  Rundschau  already  quoted. 

—  186  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Nationalist  readers  of  the  Tdgliche  Rundschau.     One 
would  take  them  to  be  from  the  same  pen. 

The  Universities  are  proud  of  having  furnished 
the  army  with  "  scientifically  exact  instrumental 
forces  "  in  a  supreme  degree  of  perfection.  Big  guns, 
submarines  and  airships  are,  most  certainly,  scientific 
marvels  and  worthy  of  admiration,  but  the  patriotic 
spirit  of  Germany  has  irremediably  compromised 
itself  in  association  with  "  a  modern  military  tech- 
nique "  which  makes  use  of  the  diabolical  measures 
of  asphyxiating  gases  and  liquid  fire.  These 
resources  are  not  found  on  the  spur  of  the  moment. 
The  fact  of  employing  them  of  set  purpose,  without 
necessity  and  in  the  face  of  promises  given,  shows  that 
the  other  preparation,  the  intellectual  and  moral 
preparing,  must  have  marched  side  by  side  with  the 
instrumental  preparations.  "  Kultur  "  makes  up  a 
homogeneous  whole. 

It  makes  one  shudder  to  think  how  greatly  the 
concentration  of  all  higher  tuition  will  enable  the 
training  of  cultivated  minds  to  be  intensified  in  order 
to  help  forward  the  egoistical  aims  of  an  irresponsible 
Government. 

The  Universities  and  high  schools  for  special  study 
take  "  the  human  material  to  be  kneaded  "  from  the 
flower  of  the  nation.  They  prepare  students  for  the 
higher  and  middle  ranks  of  the  Administration,  for 
the  magistrature,  for  the  higher  professorships,  for 
the  ministry,  for  liberal  professions  and  for  important 
employments  in  commerce  and  industry. 
-187  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

Rare  indeed  are  the  young  men  who  on  their 
arrival  at  the  University  do  not  become  enrolled  in 
one  of  the  numerous  associations,  which  are  linked 
together  and  spread  from  one  University  to  another, 
forming  a  sort  of  vast  Masonic  Covenant.  Nothing 
remains  of  local  recruiting,  except  the  memory 
which  is  preserved  in  the  name  and  device  on  the 
banners  of  some  of  the  oldest  of  these  associations. 
The  spirit  of  particularism,  of  old  times,  has  disap- 
peared from  among  the  youth  of  the  University. 
Nevertheless  groupings  are  to  be  seen,  as  in  all 
society,  and  these  are  determined  by  social  position 
or  by  the  employment  of  their  affiliated  members. 
There  are  Universities  which  receive  none  but  noble- 
men ;  certain  are  for  the  rich,  others  for  middle- 
class  citizens ;  there  are  some  for  the  studious, 
and  others  for  members  of  this  or  that  religious 
body ;  but  none  acknowledge  themselves  as  poli- 
tical. In  all  of  them  staunch  friendships  are  made 
for  life.  And  over  them  all  waves  "  the  ancient 
banner  of  patriotic  love,  as  in  the  time  of  the  wars 
of  liberation." 

The  younger  members,  at  the  outset  of  their 
curriculum,  knowing  the  initial  year  to  be  in  any 
case  lost  to  their  studies,  make  this  their  year  of 
military  service  and  thus  keep  up  the  general 
enthusiasm.  Old  members,  who  have  made  their 
way  in  life,  come  every  now  and  then  to  carouse 
with  their  young  "  brothers,"  and  assure  them  of 
their  solidarity,  but  also  to  remind  them  that  the 
—  188  - 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

country  is  counting  on  them.  Bismarck  and  the 
Emperor  never  failed  to  keep  up  this  tradition.  No 
old  student  has  ever  disowned  the  colours  of  his  corps- 

The  young  students  on  their  side — the  present 
members — do  not  forget  their  honorary  members. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  a  political  or  civic  spirit, 
properly  so-called,  is  formed  in  these  associations. 
But  patriotic  spirit,  national,  nay  even  nationalistic 
spirit,  and  unreserved  and  disciplined  loyalism,  are 
all  fostered  by  them.  That  is  all  that  the  Govern- 
ment desires.  Its  most  cultured  adversaries  have 
never  on  that  account  been  the  most  formidable- 
Bismarck  got  the  better  of  Windthorst,  who,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  Germans,  was  his  superior  as  a 
politician.  In  1914  the  Socialist "  doctors  "  were  the 
first  to  throw  away  their  principles,  and  to  drag  their 
party,  which  was  before  committed  to  an  irreducible 
opposition,  into  the  train  of  an  Emperor  and  Govern- 
ment in  whose  eyes  they  have  never  been  anything 
but  "  enemies  of  the  country." 

In  the  German  "  war  literature  "  the  Universities 
take  the  leading  part.  The  daily  press  has  at  no 
time  published  so  many  articles  of  political  bearing 
signed  by  "  doctors  "  and  "  professors  both  ordinary 
and  extraordinary  "  of  all  branches.  The  Censor 
has  nothing  to  say  against  them.  Those  who  have 
neither  written  nor  spoken  in  public  lose  all  esteem ; 
they  have  stifled  their  science  and  their  conscience 
by  sheltering  their  want  of  courage  behind  the 
"  civic  truce." 

—  189  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

The  others  have  applauded  the  acts  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  historians  by  profession  have  gone  the 
farthest  astray.  1  Eminent  lawyers  have  propped 
up  the  theory  of  "  scraps  of  paper  "  by  impudent 
sophisms.  They  have,  by  artful  "  interpretations  " 
as  false  as  they  were  shameless,  justified  the  violation 
of  Belgium,  the  monstrous  crimes  of  the  soldiery, 
and  the  flagrant  failing  in  respect  of  treaties.  By 
their  showing,  Germany  alone  has  respected  inter- 
national law. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  University  centres  there 
has  not  been  the  smallest  manifestation  of  moral 
rectitude  or  of  objectivity,  or  of  liberty,  all  so  much 
vaunted,  which  might  be  regarded  as  a  protest.  No 
authorized  minority  of  intellectuals,  not  even  an 
individual  of  unquestioned  position,  has  stood  up 
to  object.2 

We  could  have  said  as  much.  The  Parliament 
remained  free.  Some  rather  violent  opposition 
speeches  of  a  censorious  character  were  made  there. 
But  even  in  the  yells  of  impotent  rage  uttered  by 
the  Socialist  minority,  most  of  whom  have  not 
enjoyed  a  University  education,  we  should  seek  in 
vain  for  one  single  mention  of  a  University  man 

1  The  criticisms  of  "  J 'accuse  "  by  the  German  Univer- 
sities fully  reveal  how  prejudiced  are  the  minds  of  their 
authors. 

2  The   novel   Inferno,   by   E.    Stilgebauer,  appeared   at 
Basle  and  has  been  forbidden  in  Germany  :    The  appeals 
of  Remain  Holland  have  had  deceptive  echoes.    See  below, 
p.  208,  the  opinions  of  Prof.  F.  W.  Foerster. 

—  190  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

having  had  the  courage  to  make  his  voice  heard  on 
the  side  of  right,  justice  and  humanity. 

From  Christian  pulpits  ministers  of  God  have 
sanctified  the  barbarous  excesses  of  the  war  by 
quotations  from  the  Bible.  The  German  bishops 
have  disdainfully  rejected  the  appeal  of  their 
Belgian  brethren  for  Christian  forbearance.  The 
deputy  pastor  Dr.  Traub,  of  Diisseldorf,  a  Liberal  (!), 
in  a  publication  bearing  the  significant  title  Eiserne 
Blatter  (iron  leaves)  preaches  a  hatred  of  the  enemy 
which  has  nothing  evangelical  about  it. 

The  teachers  in  secondary  schools,  etc.,  began,  as 
early  as  August  1914  a  campaign  without  precedent.1 
To  them  the  time  seems  to  have  come  finally  to 
purge  German  pedagogy  of  any  tendency  that 
might  be  described  as  generally  human.  Does  not 
German  "  Kultur "  when  enriched  and  purified 
by  national  progress  comprehend  the  most  precious 
essentials  of  an  antique  culture  ?  As  to  the  arts 
and  the  literature  of  modern  nations,  Germany 
has  much  better  to  show.  What  is  there  to  wait 
for  ?  Why  not  use  the  German  national  school, 
placed  under  the  safe  authority  of  Berlin,  to  train 
German  men  and  women  and  to  bring  them  up'  so 
as  to  achieve  military  efficiency  (wehrhaft  und 
kriegstuchtig),  and  to  reinforce  the  flower  of  the 
governing  body  by  the  admission  into  professions  of 
the  best  elements  of  the  people  ? 

Manufacturers,  merchants  and  landowners  have 

1  See  Chapter  V. 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

formally  called  upon  the  Chancellor  to  relinquish 
none  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the  German  army. 
Having  learnt  their  cue  in  the  upper  technical 
schools  they  go  on  obeying  their  masters.  One  of 
them,  the  author  of  Mitteleuropa,  has  outlined  the 
programme  of  their  ambitions.  Others  have  already 
established  themselves  at  Ghent  and  at  Constantin- 
ople, to  prepare  the  commercial  routes  to  Antwerp 

and  Bagdad. 

*  *  * 

Certainly  the  seed  sown  broadcast  by  the  Ger- 
man universities  has  yielded  well.  It  has  indeed 
yielded  too  luxuriantly  and  has  choked  off  the 
harvest.  The  learned  doctors  of  Berlin  do  not 
know  what  to  make  of  it.  The  propaganda  which 
they  have  been  organizing  with  such  care  and 
method  throughout  the  whole  world  since  the 
first  days  of  the  war,  has  convinced  no  one  of  the 
justice  of  the  German  cause  and  the  blessings  of 
"  Kultur."  In  their  very  midst  the  excesses  of 
zealots  threaten  to  compromise  both  the  science 
and  the  German  cause.  They  have  sown  the 
"  dragon's  teeth  round  the  golden  fleece." 

Let  us  beware  of  believing  them  willing  and  ready 
to  make  a  frank  return  to  the  Germany  of  Bismarck, 
or  of  Goethe,  1  advocated  by  some.  If  we  believed 
them  we  should  be  mistaking  the  nature  of  the 
nationalist  pride,  which  has  bewildered  the  wisest 

1  It  was  a  University  man,  a  professor  of  theology,  who 
protested  publicly  against  this  watchword. 
-  192  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

of  them.  Let  us  rest  content  to  keep  a  record  of 
the  denials  of  their  political  excesses  which  they 
have  issued  almost  in  the  guise  of  avowals. 

A  short  time  before  his  death  Professor  E.  Siepert 
who  taught  the  English  language  and  literature  at 
the  Munich  University,  published  in  the  Berliner 
TageUatt l  a  very  honest  article  on  the  "  duties  of 
patriotism."  The  abundant  war  literature  against 
England,  which  this  learned  teacher  of  English  had 
seen  come  to  light  within  a  year,  had  filled  him  with 
aversion  and  sadness.  "  The  false  generalization/' 
he  writes,  "  the  partial  and  exaggerated  judgments 
to  be  found  in  the  much  talked  of  book  by  Eduard 
Meyer,  titular  Professor  of  Ancient  History  at  the 
Berlin  University,  are  little  fitted  to  enhance  respect 
for  German  science." 

Another  critic,  also  a  University  man,  thus  begins 
his  report  of  the  same  book.  2  "  The  natural 
sciences  and  their  applications,  have,  owing  to  the 
war,  achieved  results,  notably  in  Germany,  which 
they  could  not  have  reached  but  after  long  years 
in  the  supine  development  of  peace.  But  we 
may  remark  that  the  abstract  sciences  which 
are  in  nowise  so  vital  to  the  interests  of  the  coun- 
try have  in  a  like  manner  hastened  their  move- 
ments in  order  to  readjust  themselves  anew.3  A 

1  October  30,    1915.     See  also  the  Mercure  de  France, 
February  10,  1916,  p.  586. 

2  Dr.  B.  Guttmann,  in  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  Nov.  14, 

15- 

3  Umlernen,  to  unlearn  in  order  to  learn  over  again,  to 

—  193   —  * 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

new  science,  born  of  the  war,  is  in  the  making  and 
is  setting  to  work  to  repaint  the  former  image  of 
the  world  according  to  the  experience  of  the  last 
fifteen  months.  It  would  appear  that,  on  August  i, 
1914,  the  scales  fell  from  the  eyes  of  not  a  few  philo- 
sophers, historians  and  writers.  They  instantly 
hastened  to  spread  abroad  their  new-found  know- 
ledge. Those  who  did  not  know  it  then,  have  now 
learnt  how  precarious  were  the  demonstrations  in 
the  science  of  civilization,  in  spite  of  the  exactness 
of  the  methods  employed.  And  as  the  same 
small  number  of  contemporary  official  documents 
have  been  interpreted  by  the  learned  of  diverse 
nations  in  such  a  radically  different  manner,  what 
warrant  have  we  that  in  the  matter  of  Egyptian 
papyrus  or  Moabitish  inscriptions  we  may  not  be 
deluding  ourselves  with  most  disquieting  mysti- 
fications ?  Unhappily  it  has  also  become  «iear  that 
those  who  have  been  searching  after  truth  during 
their  whole  lives  have  not  found  in  it  an  antidote 
to  their  own  prejudices." 

The  author  of  these  lines  would  be  no  true  German 
if  he  did  not  imply  that  he  shared  his  disenchant- 
ment with  all  the  learned  bodies  of  the  world, 
especially  with  the  French  and  English.  But  he 

change  one's  method  of  study.  The  German  war  language 
has  coined  new  terms  of  this  type  to  express  the  new  trend 
of  the  public  mind  and  the  fresh  aspect  of  things  :  Umwer- 
ten  is  to  put  a  different  construction  on  things  from  what 
was  done  in  the  past. 

—  194  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

was  brought  to  it  by  an  overwhelming  criticism  of  a 
book  written  by  a  professor  who  was  deemed  worthy 
to  succeed  the  great  Mommsen  in  the  chair  of 
history  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  The  blow 
which  he  aims  at  the  Berlin  savant  strikes  all  of 
those  of  his  colleagues,  and  their  name  is  legion, 
who  in  the  matter  of  this  war  have  brought  German 
official  history  into  grave  discredit. 

Herr  Meyer,  as  far  as  we  know,  has  made  re- 
search into  the  first  origin  of  European  civilization 
his  speciality.  On  the  other  hand  his  knowledge 
of  the  English  language  is  very  small,  and  it  is  only 
by  hear-say  that  he  has  any  acquaintance  with  the 
political  and  social  institutions  of  Great  Britain. 
However,  this  did  not  prevent  him,  as  a  champion 
of  German  "  Kultur  "  and  a  fervent  admirer  of 
the  Prussian  political  regime,  from  writing  a  few 
weeks  after,  under  the  influence  of  anger,  a  so- 
called  scientific  and  hence  scathing  condemnation 
of  the  social  and  political  development  of  the 
English  people.  Let  us  await  the  moment  when 
his  science  will  justify  the  French  and  Belgian 
deportations  by  that  of  the  Jews  under  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. 

Well,  it  now  seems  that  the  learned  archaeologist 
of  Susiana  has  cooled  down.  Not  long  ago,  when  the 
Prussian  Minister  of  Education,  yielding  to  pressure 
from  the  Nationalists,  gave  orders  that  modern 
German  history  should  be  taught  in  the  schools  as 
widely  as  possible,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  sub- 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

jects  if  need  be,  apprehension  arose  in  the  minds 
of  certain  historians,  and  to  this  Herr  Meyer  was 
no  exception.  Did  they  find  out  that  badly  taught 
national  history  is  the  surest  road  to  that  jingoism 
and  chauvinism  with  which  they  have  so  often 
reproached  their  enemies  ?  And  did  they  under- 
stand that  the  masters  of  historical  criticism,  by 
jumbling  up  their  science  with  the  casuistry  of 
nationalist  proselytism,  are  on  the  verge  of  making 
a  disastrous  political  hoax  of  historiography  and 
"  Kultur." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  classical  philologists 
have  been  roused  by  the  violent  attacks  started 
on  every  side,  and  often  in  their  own  camp,  against 
the  ancient  classical  humanities  which  are  considered 
to  be  "  too  unreal  and  utterly  useless  to  the 
German  Fatherland/' 

Neo-philologists  have  been  forced  to  protest 
against  the  iconoclast  fury  which  insists  on  the 
root  and  branch  proscription  of  the  languages, 
the  literature  and  the  art  of  England,  France  and 
Italy. 

Those  who  wish  to  turn  these  much-vaunted 
German  schools  into  "  schools  of  non-commissioned 
officers  with  a  little  science  thrown  in,"  are  not  the 
ranters  we  might  take  them  for.  They  are  stu- 
dents, the  true  children  of  the  Universities.  And 
this  singular  state  of  mind  has  been  created  by  the 
masters  of  these  Universities.  German  science 
has  stepped  out  of  its  sphere  by  entering  on  a  politi- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

cal  career.  Instead  of  leaving  professional  politi- 
cians to  achieve  the  aims  pointed  out  by  science, 
the  German  Universities  have  let  themselves  be 
enslaved.  It  will  hardly  be  an  easy  task  for  them 
to  retrieve  this  fatal  step. 

*  *  * 

The  first  Kriegsrector  (War-rector)  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin  was  the  celebrated  hellenist  U.  von 
Willamowitz-Moellendorf,  Chief  Councillor  of  State 
and  enjoying  the  title  of  Excellency.  The  person- 
ality of  the  Rector  chosen  seemed  at  once  a  symbol 
and  a  happy  omen.  His  father  in-law,  the  well- 
known  historian  Mommsen,  had  unveiled  during  his 
rectorship  the  commemorative  slab  dedicated  by 
the  University  of  Berlin  to  its  members  who  fell  in 
1870.  His  son-in-law  had  camped  outside  Paris 
with  the  grenadiers  of  the  Prussian  Guard.  Was 
he  perhaps  destined  to  celebrate  a  similar  victory 
in  1915  ?  As  a  hellenist  he  enjoyed  a  matchless 
reputation.  His  profound  and  exclusive  learning, 
backed  by  an  exceptional  talent  in  oratory,  has 
caused  him  to  be  compared  with  G.  de  Humboldt, 
A.  Boekh  and  F.  A.  Wolf.  His  influence  over  the 
Universities  of  his  country  is  unquestioned.  Be- 
sides all  this,  Professor  Willamowitz  is  one  of  the 
most  noted  personalities  in  the  highest  society. 
The  Emperor  honours  him  with  particular  esteem. 
He  has  the  ear  of  the  Government.  For  Herr  von 
Willamowitz  gladly  forsakes  the  serenity  of  classic 
life  to  watch  the  movements  of  foreign  countries, 
—  197  — 


TH£  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

whose  languages  and  institutions  he  knows.  To 
that  body  of  the  learned  who  had  so  honorably 
acknowledged  his  worth,  he  gave  the  impression  of 
labouring  for  a  closer  union  of  modern  civilization 
round  common  classical  studies,  which  he  knew 
so  well  how  to  restore.  An  English  paper  lately 
wrote  of  him  that  the  lectures  he  held  at  Oxford  had 
done  more  to  establish  a  good  understanding  between 
nations  than  all  the  political  discourses  of  recent 
times.  Such  optimism  was  excessive. 

So  the  harangues  of  this  eminent  "  Kriegs-rector  " 
were  expected  with  not  unreasonable  curiosity. 
They  did  not  disappoint  the  German  official  and 
learned  world.  Herr  von  Willamowitz  belongs  to 
the  country  squire  class.  He  is  one  of  the  chiefs  of 
"  Kultur."  If  he  did  not  take  the  initiative  in  the 
manifesto  of  the  ninety-three  he  was  one  of  the  first 
to  sign  it  and  to  get  it  signed  by  his  colleagues.  He 
employed  his  learning,  his  talent,  his  influence 
and  his  "  rectorial  magnificence  "  to  prove  to  the 
educated  society  of  Berlin — even  in  the  churches 
— "the  justice  of  the  German  cause,"  "the  aggres- 
sion of  the  perfidious  foreigner,"  "  the  intimate 
connexion  between  science  and  militarism."  These 
harangues  whose  "  verve  and  conviction "  and 
"genial  arguments  "  are  much  vaunted  by  German 
newspapers,  have  been  printed,  as  have  many 
others,  and  are  largely  circulated  in  neutral  coun- 
tries 

Now  the  first  doubts  on  the  efficiency  of  his  cam- 
—  198  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

paign  appear  to  come  to  Herr  von  Willamowitz 
from  outside.  He  has  already  found  l  a  certain 
section  of  truth  on  the  enemy  side.  "  Foreign 
Ministers,"  he  says,  "  are  mingling  falsehood  with 
truth  when  they  speak  of  the  German  menace  ; 
the  Emperor  has  never  threatened  any  one ;  what 
our  adversaries  felt  themselves  threatened  by,  was 
the  power,  the  commerce  and  the  wealth  of  Ger- 
many." Has  not  one  of  the  colleagues  of  Herr  von 
Willamowitz  tried  to  prove,  not  less  "  genially,  "  that 
"  defensive  "  and  "  preventive  "  are  synonymous, 
and  by  so  saying  avowed  in  spite  of  himself  that 
Germany's  so-called  defensive  war  was  a  war  stirred 
up  by  herself  ? 

Quite  recently  another  manifesto  of  the  intellec- 
tuals was  put  into  circulation.  The  papers  had 
announced  its  publication.  Herr  von  Willamowitz, 
who  figured  among  its  promoters,  preferred,  so  it 
would  seem,  to  let  the  matter  rest  there. 

Still  more  recently,  Herr  von  Willamowitz  has 
felt  the  need  of  explaining  to  the  Berlin  corre- 
spondent of  the  Vanguardia  of  Barcelona,  as  well  as 
to  Mr.  Ricardo  Leon,  of  the  Spanish  Academy, 
the  full  bearing  and  import  of  his  rectorial  orations, 
so  that  they  might  notify  the  same  to  the  com- 
patriots and  to  the  Latin  nations  of  South  America. 
His  "  explanations,"  spread  abroad  by  the  whole 

1  In  a  speech  at  the  Church  of  the  Trinity  at  Berlin  on 
October  5,  1915,  on  "The  second  winter  of  the  war" 
(Lokal-Anzeiger,  October  7,  1915). 

—  199  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

of  the  German  Press  in  the  form  of  an  oiicial  com- 
munication, are  interesting  in  the  highest  degree. 
They  are  an  illustration,  slightly  shaded  off  so  as 
to  fit  the  circumstances,  of  the  political  function 
of  German  Universities  in  general.  Their  aim  is  to 
forestall  the  danger  of  a  future  withdrawal  of 
foreign  connexions  which  might  be  the  result  of  the 
equivocal  attitude  of  the  centres  of  German  science. 
The  following  are  the  "  explanations  "  according 
to  the  Berlin  Lokal-Anzeiger,  August  29,  1916. 

"  This  satisfies  my  own  wish  to  give  in  a  precise 
form  to  the  representatives  of  Spain  and  the  Latin 
races  of  South  America  some  explanation  of  the 
speeches  made  by  me,  as  Rector  of  the  University  of 
Berlin.  What  I  have  stated  both  as  a  patriot  and 
a  man  of  science,  is  founded  on  the  philosophical  and 
historical  doctrine  carefully  worked  out  by  the 
great  German  thinkers  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 
You  have  the  successful  results  of  this  doctrine  before 
you  :  they  are  to  be  seen  in  the  political  and  intel- 
lectual progress  of  Germany.  Consequently,  this 
doctrine  equally  holds  sway  in  our  Universities. 
Whatever  is  gained  for  science  belongs  not  to  any 
particular  nation,  but  to  all  Humanity.  Thus 
Greece  in  the  first  ages,  and  since  her  time  the 
Church,  have  laboured  for  all,  as  do  now  all  civilized 
nations  (Kulturvolker).  If,  in  a  hundred  years, 
Germany  has  succeeded  in  making  great  progress 
in  every  department  of  science,  all  nations  are 
bound  to  appropriate  to  themselves  these  gains, 

—  200    — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

so  as  not  to  be  left  behind  ;  but  not  because  we  are 
Germans,  but  in  the  interest  of  science  itself.  This 
latter  possesses  the  miraculous  power  of  becoming 
all  the  stronger  for  being  lavishly  used.  We  have 
done  so  gladly,  and  there  is  no  occasion  to  fear  that 
your  youthful  students  will  in  the  future  receive 
a  less  friendly  welcome  at  our  hands. 

"It  is  one  of  the  malicious  lies  of  our  enemies  to 
assert  that  we  desire  to  force  a  political  and  intel- 
lectual tyranny  upon  the  world.  On  the  contrary  ,^ 
our  philosophical  and  historical  investigations  have 
made  it  a  recognized  fact  that  the  welfare  and 
advance  of  human  civilization  rests  on  the  collabora- 
tion of  nations  according  to  the  strength  and  temper 
peculiar  to  each.  Uniformity  in  the  culture  of  the 
world  (Weltkultur)  would  be  a  misfortune,  even 
if  the  predominant  culture  of  a  people  were  as 
superior  to  others  as  was  once  Greek  civilization, 
or  the  French  civilization  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
English  sway  all  over  the  world  would  possess  such  a 
uniformity.  Germany  is  seeking  nothing  of  the  kind. 
It  is  precisely  because  it  has  cost  us  such  heavy 
sacrifices  to  found  our  national  State,  while  at  the 
same  time  developing  that  science  which  rises 
above  all  national  landmarks,  that  we  have  learnt 
to  estimate  the  value  of  the  national  spirit  of  envy 

1  The  italicized  passages  are  thus  emphasized  in  the 
original.     The  author  has  carefully  weighed  his  phrases. 
He  stakes  much  on  his  play  of  words,  thereby  revealing 
all  the  more  clearly  his  real  thoughts. 
—  201  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

of  every  foreign  nation.  For  we  Germans  may  safely 
maintain  without  fear  of  being  called  presumptuous, 
that  we  know  better  than  any  one  how  to  take 
delight  in  becoming  one  with  the  intellectual  life 
of  a  foreign  people. 

"  I  speak  to  men  who  express  themselves  in 
Spanish.  I  have  therefore  occasion  to  enlarge  upon 
a  subject  which  should  have  formed  part  of  my 
second  speech  but  which  the  shortness  of  my 
allotted  time  constrained  me  to  leave  out.  When 
I  say  that  old  Roman  rhetoric  no  longer  suffices, 
I  mean  that  I  expect  from  Latin  nations  a  vigorous 
and  intellectual  forward  movement.  Each  of  them 
possesses  its  own  precious  store  of  national  strength, 
concealed  under  the  veneer  of  traditional  forms. 
While  on  this  subject  I  willingly  add  what  my 
celebrated  colleague,  Professor  Morf l  said  to  me 
even  before  the  war  ;  he  has  studied  at  Madrid,  and 
professionally  studies  modern  Spanish  literature 
including  popular  literature.  This  is  what  he 
said  to  me.  '  In  no  Latin  country  as  in  Spain,  at  the 
present  moment,  is  such  a  powerful  and  lively  (frisch), 
intellectual  push  to  be  found.'  But  we  ourselves  are 
desirous  in  the  future  to  share  your  life  to  a  still 
greater  extent.  The  University  of  Berlin  has  only 
postponed  the  solemnities  in  honour  of  Cervantes 
on  account  of  the  war.  At  the  time  of  the  Jubilee 

1  One  of  the  subscribers  to  the  sorry  manifesto  of  the 
ninety- three  ;   of  Swiss  origin,  and  a  pupil  of  Gas  ton  Paris, 
whose  valuable  friendship  he  has  possessed. 
—  202  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

of  our  University,  we  conferred  on  M.  Cuervo  the 
title  of  Doctor  honoris  causa,  and  we  laid  particular 
and  eulogizing  stress  on  the  fact  that  having  been  born 
in  Bogota,  he  has  become  a  world  leader  by  his 
talent  for  the  study  of  Spanish  dialects  both  of 
America  and  of  the  mother  country.  And  then 
there  is  Numantia !  E.  Saavedra  had  already 
fixed  on  the  site.  The  accuracy  of  this  site  has 
been  confirmed  by  Ad.  Schulten.  The  Emperor  of 
Germany  has  himself  given  funds  for  the  excava- 
tions. But  when  doubt  was  no  longer  possible,  we 
Germans  gave  way.  We  understood  quite  well  that 
Spain  had  set  her  heart  on  excavating  this  spot  of 
national  glory,  and  so  we  busied  ourselves  with  the 
Roman  camps  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  town. 
The  zeal  of  the  Spanish  explorers  was  kindled.  They  \ 
now  wield  the  pickaxe  in  numerous  places.  This  is 
how  German  science  makes  it  its  study  to  awaken 
national  competition  :  it  does  not  try  to  stifle  it. 

"  It  is  a  long  way  to  South  America,  but  technique 
gets  the  mastery  over  space.  Let  us  each  then 
contribute  our  quota  to  draw  the  nations  together. 
We  Germans  will  joyfully  greet  your  young  men  in 
our  Universities,  and  we  are  persuaded  that  in  the 
union  of  our  nations,  we  shall  by  no  means  only 
give  ;  we  also  gladly  receive  and  learn." 

We  must  not  try  to  find  in  these  statements  a 

withdrawal  of  the  speeches  this  patriot  made  to  his 

fellow-countrymen.      Herr    von    Willamowitz    has 

too  much  intelligence  and  learning  not  to  have 

—  203  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

understood  the  danger  of  the  extravagant  apostolate 
to  which  the  German  Universities  now  stand  com- 
mitted by  means  of  long  training.  Does  he  see 
armed  men  springing  from  the  dragon's  teeth  that 
were  sown  around  German  science  ?  It  is  by  no 
means  the  first  time  since  the  Manifesto  of  the 
ninety-three  that  he  remembers  that  science  is 
international.  His  last  defensive  speech  resembles 
the  quibbling  of  the  cleverer  sort  of  social  demo- 
cratic leaders — persons  moulded  in  the  Universities 
— to  "recapture"  the  international  Socialist  so  use- 
ful to  German  politics.  Having  left  the  rectorial 
chair,  has  Herr  von  Willamowitz  put  back  on  the 
face  of  German  science  the  delusive  mask  torn  from 
it  by  the  war  ? 

The  outburst  of  furious  hatred  which  in  the 
immediate  circle  of  the  most  popular  and  well- 
informed  of  rectors  had  swamped  with  its  filth  even 
the  lowest  and  most  ignorant  strata  of  the  German 
people,  has  caused  much  meditation  among  reflecting 
Germans.  In  the  Press,  the  University  bodies  have 
called  upon  the  State  to  close  the  German  Universi- 
ties in  future  to  foreigners,  and  specially  to  subjects  of 
the  powers  now  at  war  with  Germany,  and  of  neutral 
countries  who  have  not  openly  sided  with  her.  In  the 
Prussian  Parliament  this  interdiction  has  given  rise 
to  a  passionate  Xenophobian  discussion.  The  mere  fact 
that  deputies  have  made  it  the  subject  of  a  parlia- 
mentary debate,  sanctioning  the  measure  on  the  part 
of  the  Government,  suffices  to  show  to  what  degree 
—  204  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

the  establishments  of  higher  education  are  a  poli- 
tical instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  State.  Herr 
von  Willamowitz  would  fain  reassure  his  inter- 
locutors of  Latin  race  on  this  point.  But  he  is  very 
careful  not  to  tell  them  how  completely  philosophical 
and  historical  doctrine  has  shifted  its  aims  in 
the  last  fifty  years.  Nothing  remains  of  it,  in  fact, 
but  narrow-minded  party  fanaticism  and  selfish 
nationalism. 

Contrary  to  what  Germans  are  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  when  they  are  summing  up  English  and 
French  science,  we  have  no  intention  of  denying 
the  progress  made  by  our  neighbours  in  science,  nor 
to  belittle  the  preponderant  share  in  it  which  in 
their  country  accrues  to  the  Universities.  Certainly 
there  are  benefits  to  science  itself  in  making  hu- 
manity partake  of  them  in  the  widest  and  most 
liberal  measure.  But  the  method  must  always  be 
considered,  and  it  is  precisely  Herr  von  Willam- 
owitz's  method  which  is  characteristic  of  German 
Universities,  although  in  his  case  it  is  toned  down 
by  acquaintance  with  the  habits  of  society.  The 
phrase  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  obligation  of  foreign 
nations  to  take  to  themselves  German  progress,  in 
the  interest  of  science,  throws  a  light  on  all  German 
proselytism.  He  asserts,  it  being  an  understood 
thing  that  his  learning  gives  him  the  right  thereto, 
or  rather,  what  is  equally  characteristic,  he  in- 
sinuates by  antitheses,  and  formulates  premises,  leav- 
ing the  trouble  of  proving  them  to  the  public, 
—  205  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

"  The  old  Roman  rhetoric  no  longer  suffices  "  ; 
"  the  valuable  national  force  of  the  Latin  nations 
is  hidden  under  the  varnish  of  traditional  forms." 
We  expect  from  them  a  vigorous  intellectual  for- 
ward movement.     Another  of  his  colleagues  would 
have  said — how  many  times  have  we  not  heard  it — 
that   the   Latin   races   are   prattlers   incapable   of 
action  ;    that  their  civilization  is  only  veneered ; 
that  there  is  no  indication  that  their  national  powers 
will  ever  re-awaken,  etc.,  etc.    The  Spanish  acad- 
emician must  have  felt    a    little  embarrassed,   on 
account  of  the  two  other  Latin   sister  nations,  at 
the  discovery  of  the  "  illustrious  "  Professor  Morf 
on  the  recent  literary  renaissance  in  Spain.     How 
happy  the   Spaniards   ought   to  be  to  learn  that 
Cervantes,  whose  anniversary  has  been  feted  every- 
where, in  spite  of  the  war,  will  later  on  be  feted  in 
Germany  when  they  have  time  ;    that  the  best 
Spanish  linguist  of  the  present  day  is  a  native  of 
Columbia ;     that    without    the    supervision    and 
initiative    of    German    science,    and    without    the 
money  of  the  Emperor,  the  Spaniards  would  never 
have   undertaken   the   excavations   of   Numantia. 
These  facts  may  be  accurate.     But  it  would  seem 
that  by  asserting  them  with  a  little  more  delicacy 
and  a  little  less  presumption,  less   risk  would  be 
run  of  awakening  in  the  Spaniards  the  suspicion 
that  German  science  is  at  any  rate  inclined  to  lord 
it  over  their  science,  and  to  control  their  plans 
of  action. 

—  206  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Every  one  has  seen  something  of  the  same  kind 
in  German  trade.  And  it  is  feared  that  the  sum 
total  of  German  progress,  alias  "Kultur,"  may  end 
in  like  manner  in  "  tyranny  "  and  "  suppression." 
Is  it  not  for  having  withstood  this  danger  and 
thwarted  Germany's  plans,  that  all  the  Latin, 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Slavonic  nations  of  Europe, 
Spain  alone  excepted,  are  to-day  the  victims  of 
German  aggression  ?  Herr  von  Willamowitz  invokes 
historical  and  philosophical  doctrines  to  declare  that 
uniformity  in  world  culture  would  be  a  disaster. 
But  these  same  doctrines  teach  us  that  such  a  uni- 
formity has  never  resulted,  and  never  will  result, 
from  political  ascendency,  always  supposing  such 
an  ascendency  to  be  something  more  than  a  chimera. 
Spain  once  held  sway  over  an  empire  on  which  the 
sun  never  set.  She  and  England  once  divided  the 
Americas  between  them.  Their  languages  and 
culture  prevail  there  to  this  day.  It  is  quite  prob- 
able that  neither  the  Catalonian  journalist  nor  the 
Academician  believe  that  the  misfortunes  of  South 
America — and  she  certainly  has  undergone  many 
and  great  misfortunes — are  due  to  their  uniform 
Spanish  culture,  any  more  than  that  the  prosperity 
of  the  Northern  States,  Canada  and  Australia, 
are  the  exclusive  acts  of  dominating  English 
culture. 

Herr  von  Willamowitz  wants  to  bring  about  a 
University  propaganda.  He  could  not  well  say 

that  the  German  professors  had  compromised  their 
—  207  — 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

reputations  both  before  and  during  the  war.  He 
does  not  breathe  a  word  either  of  the  clumsy  insults 
heaped  upon  the  foreign  countries  who  did  not 
applaud  German  action,  or  of  the  proscriptive 
measures  schemed  against  foreign  students.  He 
does  not  name  Italy,  he  touched  upon  French 
civilization  of  past  times,  and  reveals  his  prejudice 
against  England,  the  friend  of  Spain.  All  the  rest 
is  verbosity  about  "Kultur,"  the  only  theme  which 
claims  the  attention  of  German  Universities.  To 
offer  to  discuss  matters  or  to  try  to  convert  a 
Kulturtrdger  (a  culture  broker)  would  be  a  waste  of 
time.  Of  whatever  kind  it  may  be,  political,  in- 
tellectual, economic,  or  all  of  them  together, 
"  Kultur  "  has  led  up  to  the  most  bloody  conflict  of 
history.  Spreading  a  philosophical  and  historical 
doctrine  by  fire  and  sword  is  the  peculiar  charac- 
teristic of  barbarous  times  and  peoples. 
*  *  * 

One  University  member  has  been  found — one 
only — who  has  lifted  up  his  voice  to  stigmatize 
the  violent  diffusion  of  "  Kultur,"  and  that  is  Prof- 
Fr.  W.  Foerster.  His  example  is  so  rare  that  we 
may  be  pardoned  if  we  once  more  quote  him  in 
reference  to  Herr  von  Willamowitz. 

This  University  professor  is  no  less  convinced  of 
the  cultural  and  world-wide  mission  of  the  Germans 
than  is  Herr  von  Willamovitz-Moellendorf,  but  he 
is  equally  convinced  that  there  are  other  means  of 
realizing  it.  Having  been  brought  up  according  to 
—  208  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

the  philosophical  and  historical  doctrine  of  the 
German  Universities,  he  has  arrived  at  this  con- 
viction by  the  study  of  the  psychology  of  individuals 
and  by  consulting  the  history  of  civilizations.  His 
studies  have  compelled  the  admiration  even  of  those 
with  whose  opinions  he  has  most  violently  clashed, 
so  impressive  and  sincere  are  they  judged  to  be. 
For  Herr  Foerster  has  learnt  in  the  books  of  human- 
ity lessons  quite  different  from  those  of  the  sovereign 
pontiffs  of  Berlin.  Let  the  champion  philosopher 
of  Munich,  who  is  an  eloquent  and  skilful  writer, 
be  credited  with  having  the  same  scientific  weight  as 
the  overweening  philologist  of  Berlin.  The  former  is 
certainly  not  listened  to  with  favour  by  the  public, 
the  learned  world  and  the  Government.  At  least 
one  might  suppose  that  as  a  professor  at  the  Univer- 
sity, he  should  enjoy  the  same  freedom  of  thought 
and  speech.  The  Faculty  of  which  he  is  a  member 
has  decided  otherwise.  They  have  unanimously 
expressed  and  made  public  their  "  severest  disappro- 
bation of  the  professor's  opinions."  His  colleagues 
have  declared  themselves  "  determined  to  oppose 
firmly  "  any  attempt  at  spreading  abroad  these 
opinions  among  the  young  men  placed  under  the 
authority  of  academical  professorship.  The  Ber- 
lin newspapers  exulted,  particularly  those  of  the 
Evangelical  Union,  accused  by  Herr  Foerster  of 
having  opened  the  campaign  (Hetze)  against  him. 
The  Liberal  papers  have  tried  to  prove  by  every  kind  ' 
of  quibble,  that  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Faculty 
—  209  —  o 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

against  one  of  its  own  members  no  outrage  was  com- 
mitted against  "  academical  liberty."  They  insinu- 
ated even  that  this  "  regrettable  "  incident  was  only 
a  reprisal  on  the  part  of  the  Faculty  on  whom  the  cen- 
sured professor  had  been  forced  by  the  Govern- 
ment ! 

We  always  knew  before  what  to  think  of  the 
independence  of  the  professors  of  German  Univer- 
sities. This  incident  has  only  been  recalled  in  order 
to  show  that  the  University  of  Munich  has  made 
itself  more  Prussian  than  the  Government  of  Berlin 
itself. 

What  after  all  was  the  crime  of  Herr  Foerster  ? 
It  consists  in  the  fact  that  he,  a  German  scholar,  holds 
opinions  diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  his 
contemporaries  on  the  policy  of  Bismarck  and  on 
the  future  of  Germany  ;  above  all  it  lies  in  the  fact 
that  he  has  had  the  courage  to  say  this  "  at  the 
moment  when  Germany  is  struggling  for  her  very 
existence."  But  just  because  his  country  is  strug- 
gling for  life  or  death,  Herr  Foerster  has  thought 
it  his  duty  as  a  learned  man  and  a  patriot  to  warn 
her  of  the  dangers  in  her  path,  and  to  prove  to  her 
that  the  nationalist  policy  of  Bismarck,  the  excessive 
centralization  and  the  militarism  which  is  its  essen- 
tial condition  of  being,  are  turning  Germany  aside 
from  her  true  destiny.  Herr  Foerster  believes  in  the 
power  of  intellect  and  of  moral  worth.  It  is  thanks 
to  this  power  that  the  Catholic  Church  holds  sway 
in  the  world.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  Ger- 
—  210  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

manic  origin  once  united  under  its  "federative" 
system  nations  of  the  most  diverse  type,  because 
this  Empire  represented  a  civilization.  There  was 
no  need  of  unifying  them,  otherwise,  or  of  doing 
violence  to  them. 

In  other  words  Herr  Foerster  has  had  the  courage 
to  condemn  a  dogma  as  being  contrary  to  philo- 
sophical and  historical  doctrine  and  dangerous  to 
the  vital  interests  of  the  German  people — the 
dogma  namely  of  Prussian  patriotism,  traded  upon 
by  Bismarck  and  the  Government  of  Berlin,  for  the 
consolidation  of  the  empire  with  the  help  of  military 
power.  Consequently,  he  condemns  the  Univer- 
sities who  have  made  themselves  their  instru- 
ments. 


These  examples  suffice  to  illustrate  the  political 
functions  of  the  German  Universities.  The  war 
has  revealed  their  nature  even  to  the  most  un- 
believing. Large  is  the  number  of  foreign  scholars 
and  political  men  who  even  a  short  time  ago  were 
grateful  admirers  of  a  German  alma  mater,  but  who 
now  turn  away  from  a  type  of  learning  which  is 
full  of  danger  for  humanity.  Even  in  Germany 
a  few  minds  have  felt  the  need  of  a  new  departure 
(Neuorientirung) .  They  exhort  their  contemporaries 
to  unlearn  in  order  to  learn  anew  (Umlernen). 
Their  appeals  have  little  chance  of  being  understood 
—  211  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

in  the  humanistic  sense,  so  long  as  the  militarist 
Nationalism  of  1813  and  1870  has  not  been  definitely 
shipwrecked  in  the  catastrophe  provoked  by  it  in 
1914. 

*  *  4 

To  however  great  a  degree  of  perfection  the 
ordering  of  higher  education  in  Germany  may 
have  been  brought,  foreigners  have  learnt  through 
this  war  how  questionable  is  the  association  with 
its  irresponsible  power  which  lies  hidden  under  a 
show  of  humanitarian  impartiality,  and  of  what 
challenges  to  scientific  truth  its  most  illustrious 
teachers  are  capable.  The  outburst  of  hatred  of  the 
foreigner,  which  has  reverberated  from  the  Univer- 
sities to  the  very  thresholds  of  the  legislative  powers, 
will  be  a  warning  to  them.  During  the  second 
year  of  war,  the  German  Universities  lost  half,  and 
even  as  much  as  two-thirds,  of  the  students  belonging 
to  neutral  countries.1  Let  us  be  ready  to  receive 
all  those  who  have  shown  their  sympathy  with  us. 
Let  us  prepare  to  offer  to  the  others  the  implements 
of  work  which  a  skilful  and  active  propaganda  bid 
fair  to  secure  to  them  in  Germany.  For  many 
reasons,  as  soon  as  the  war  is  finished,  it  will  be 
towards  England  and  France,  towards  their  Univer- 

1  There  were  only  119  Americans  as  against  300  in  time 
of  peace,  42  Asiatics  as  against  180,  220  Swiss  as  against 
310,  5  Danes  as  against  10,  44  Greeks  as  against  104,  32 
Scandinavians  as  against  43,  26  Dutch  as  against  32, 
—  212  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

sities,  their  technical  schools,  and  their  art  institu- 
tions, that  a  vast  band  of  youthful  foreigners  will 
turn.  It  is  for  us  to  see  that  they  do  not  again 
take  the  road  to  Germany. 


—  213  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  VII 
The  War  and  the  German  Woman 

THERE  was  a  time  when  the  poets  beyond  the 
Rhine  voiced  the  heart  of  their  countrymen 
in  glorifying  the  virtues  of  the  German  woman. 
The  German  young  girl,  the  betrothed,  the  wife,  the 
mother  and  the  housewife  had  not  their  equals  in  the 
world.  Germans  of  the  present  day  have  no  use  for 
such  sentimentalities.  Hermann  and  Dorothea  are 
"  back  numbers,"  like  Goethe  himself.  Imperial 
policy,  the  affairs  of  the  world  "  Kultur  "  and  the 
army  demand  virility,  nothing  but  virility  (Mann- 
haftigkeit}.  Woman  has  taken  a  back  seat.  In- 
trepid debaters  have  revealed  to  us  of  how  little 
account  they  are  in  the  upper  grades  of  military 
society.  Novel  writers  have  shown  sympathy 
towards  heiresses  who  have  lost  caste,  towards 
middle-class  misunderstood  women,  and  towards 
unhappy  working-girls. l  Doctors  and  social  ref orm- 

1  Gabriele  Reuter  has  begun  an  interesting  series  of 
types  of  German  women,  which  appear  as  a  fly-sheet  in 
the  Vossische  Zeitung  (December,  1915).  German  women 
continue  to  ignore  those  of  different  social  standing  from 
their  own.  The  feudal  idea  has  recovered  the  upper  hand. 
—  214  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

ers  have  united  with  the  feminists  in  a  campaign 
of  rehabilitation  which  showed  how  precarious  the 
social  position  of  the  German  woman  had  become. 

"Kultur"  has  her  "  Walkyries."  Frau  von 
Bismarck  would  have  wished  her  husband  to  raze 
to  the  ground  the  modern  Babel  on  the  banks  of  the 
Seine.  Women  Doctors  of  Philosophy  and  other 
blue-stockings  affect  the  same  arrogance  as  their 
brethren  of  the  stronger  sex. *  More  than  the  society 
woman  and  the  worker,  the  middle-class  woman, 
anxious  to  make  some  figure  in  the  world,  believes 
herself  called  to  contribute  to  the  glory  of  the 
Fatherland.  Who  has  not  met  the  Fraulein  possess- 
ing a  diploma,  ridiculously  dressed  in  "  Reform- 
kleid"  (rational  dress),  richer  in  pretensions  than  in 
capability,  and  proclaiming  the  militarist  or  pan- 
Germanic  sentiments  of  papa,  officer,  professor  or 
official  in  some  public  department  ? 

In  Germany  one  willingly  consoles  oneself  for 
one's  own  imperfections  by  belittling  one's  neigh- 
bours. What  have  they  not  said  of  French,  English 
and  American  women  !  However,  sensible  men  and 
women  have  had  the  courage  to  look  around  them, 
in  their  own  capitals,  in  their  industrial  towns,  in 
the  great  and  small  garrisons,  in  the  country-side. 
Infant  mortality  continues  to  increase.  An  omin- 
ous moral  perversion  prevails  among  those  in  easy 
circumstances.  Social  and  family  wretchedness  is 

1  See  on  this  point  the  opinion  of  Fraulein  Thirmacher, 

P-  137- 

—  215  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

great  in  the  homes  of  the  working  people,  who, 
however,  earn  more  than  sufficient  wages.  They 
have  concluded  from  this  that  woman  did  not  know 
how  to  fulfil  her  part  as  wife,  mother,  and  housewife, 
and,  as  ever  in  such  cases,  they  asked  the  Public 
Authority,  the  State,  to  intervene.1 

The  war  has  brought  an  unexpected  justification 
of  their  claims.  The  wounded  and  the  sick  are 
infinitely  more  numerous  than  the  authors  of  the 
catastrophe  had  feared.  The  hecatomb  engulfs, 
without  reckoning,  precious  lives.  Myriads  of 
orphans  lack  care.  The  sudden  transition  from  easy 
to  narrow  circumstances  has  disorganized  number- 
less homes.  The  inexperience  of  the  women,  which 
it  was  desired  to  deny  officially,  burst  out  in  every 
direction.  The  Government  had  to  create  organiza- 
tions of  which  the  nature,  amplitude  and  circum- 
stance reveal  the  depth  of  the  evil. 

German  officialism  objects  to  the  employment  of 
women.  But  "  Necessity  has  no  law  !  "  It  has 
been  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  them  to  drive 
motors  and  horsed  vehicles  in  the  postal  services, 
in  public  conveyances,  for  sanitary  work  and  public 
order.  What  an  innovation  !  Newspapers  spoke  of 

1  Doctor  Rott,  Director  of  the  Department  for  Infant 
Welfare  in  the  Empress  Augusta  Victoria  Hospital,  accuses 
women  of  "  indolence  and  inexperience  "  ;  especially  in 
the  poorer  classes  women  marry  without  any  knowledge 
of  housekeeping,  and  without  understanding  the  care  of  a 
child. 

—  216  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

it  as  a  revolution.  In  the  towns,  as  well  as  in 
factories  and  in  the  country-side,  the  feminine 
worker  was  suddenly  sought. 

On  the  other  hand  the  employment  of  the  middle- 
class  girls  and  those  of  a  higher  class  (the  German 
tongue  distinguishes  between  "  Mddchen "  and 
"  Tochter,"  girls  and  ladies),  proved  a  lamentable 
failure.  They  were  hardly  any  use  in  the  workshops 
or  for  the  packing  soldiers'  parcels  (Liebesgaben) . 
Those  who  were  the  most  enthusiastic  for  the  war 
showed  themselves  the  least  capable  of  rendering 
good  service.  The  Red  Cross  and  other  administra- 
tions discharged  them,  and  the  women  told  in  the 
newspapers  of  their  vain  efforts  to  obtain  employ- 
ment.1 Not  every  one  who  wishes  can  become  a 
Deaconess  (Schwester).  But  there  was  need,  in  the 
poor  households,  to  fill  the  place  of  the  mothers  who 
were  working  away  from  home,  and  who  wasted 
long  hours  waiting  their  turn  at  the  provision  shops. 

1  For  example  the  Tdgliche  Rundschau,  November  29, 
1916  ;  even  the  regulations  dealing  with  the  "  civilian  mobil- 
ization," the  levying  of  the  whole  people,  rejects  the  women 
"  who  cannot  do  physical  work."  After  a  year's  existence, 
the  "  Women's  National  Work  "  (National  Frauenarbeit)  of 
Berlin  numbered  1,400  benevolent  contributors  of  both 
sexes.  The  Managing  Committee  principally  carries  on  pro- 
paganda, and  is  lavish  with  good  advice.  The  twenty-three 
auxiliary  Committees  help  the  authorities  in  distributing 
war  charities,  obtain  work  for  the  women,  and  direct 
workshops.  It  is  hoped  the  institution  will  survive  the 
war.  In  December,  1915,  only  one  Report  had  been 
received  from  the  provinces. 

—  217  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

Innumerable  orphans  claimed  immediate  care.  In 
the  communal  kitchens  and  in  many  helpful  tasks, 
rendered  necessary  by  the  hard  times,  girls  of  good 
family  could  have  made  themselves  useful.  Alas  ! 
these  various  works  were  not  to  their  taste,  or  were 
beyond  their  capabilities. 

"  The  War  has  illuminated  with  a  crude  light  on 
the  one  hand  a  spirit  of  boundless  sacrifice  and 
good  will,  and  on  the  other  the  infinite  insufficiency 
of  feminine  aptitude."1  f<  The  great  judgment  of 
the  War  on  women's  education,"  says  one  of  the 
leading  feminists,2  "is  a  peremptory  condemnation 
of  all  mediocrities." 

Were  they  then  so  mediocre,  those  wives  of  the 
men  called  to  the  colours,  who  knew  neither  how  to 
manage,  nor  how  to  economize,  nor  how  to  look  after 
their  children  ?  Or  those  others  who  should  have 
been  welcome  helpers  in  the  hospitals,  in  the  houses 
of  the  poor,  and  in  charitable  institutions  ? 

What  anguish  for  the  future  !  To-morrow  the 
State  will  need  a  great  many  new  forces.  It  is  for 
the  women  to  reconstitute  the  population.  Whether 

1  Das  weibliche  Dienstjahr,  by  L.  Niessen-Deiters  (Koln- 
ische  Zeitung  January  17,  1916)    (Marginal  notes  of  a  lay- 
man) ;     the    leaflets    of    Frau    Elizabeth  Gnauck-Kiihne, 
Dienstpflicht und Dienstjahr  des  weiblichen  Geschlechts,  "Obli- 
gatory Service  and  year  of  service  of  the  female  sex,"  by 
Frau  Helene  Lange,  Die  Dienstpflicht  der  Frau  (women's 
obligatory  service). 

2  Helene  Lange,  Kriegslehren  fur  Frauenbildung  (teach- 
ing of  the  war  for  the  education  of  women),  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  December  24,  1915. 

—  218  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

they  work  or  whether  they  do  not,  do  they  know 
how  to  be  mothers  ? 

The  lower  the  birth-rate,  the  more  will  it  be  neces- 
sary to  protect  the  children.     "  The  good  blood- 
letting,"  of  which  several  German  authors  have 
extolled  the  wholesome  necessity,  has  come  to  pass ; 
they  little  thought  the  flow  would  be  so  abundant  ! 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  re-populate.     For  that, 
it  is  not  sufficient  to  give  permissions  to  the  "  men- 
in-grey  "    (Feldgrauen),    it    is   necessary   that    the 
mothers  should  know  how  healthily  to  rear  their 
offspring.     Where  have  they  learnt  it  ?     Maternal 
nitiation  is  not  what  it  formerly  was.     The  legend- 
ary Hausfrau  has  been  carried  away  by  the  rush  for 
money  and  pleasure.     The  young  girl  of  to-day  finds 
employment.     She  wants  to  earn  and  spend.    At 
the  time  when  formerly  she  passed  a  useful  stage 
in  her  parents'  house,  she  now  works  away  from 
home.      Among     well-to-do    persons,     the     early 
years    are    spent    at    the    boarding-school,    and 
among  the  thousand  and  one  frivolities  of  snobbery 
which  have  "  arrived."       The    Backfisch    (young 
girl)  dreams  of  marriage  when  she  leaves  school. 
How  many  marry  or  have  establishments  secured  for 
them  at  the  earliest  moment  ?     And  how  many 
become  mothers  prematurely  ? 

With  all  the  advantages  of  an  unprecedented 

economic  expansion  German  society  has  experienced 

all  the  disadvantages  resulting  therefrom.    German 

feminists  have  seen  the  danger  in  which  modern  devel- 

—  219  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

opments  placed  the  woman  and  the  family.  They 
have  succeeded,  with  difficulty,  in  bringing  public 
bodies  into  the  path  of  feminine  pedagogy,  for 
national  pride  refuses  to  admit  that  the  German 
woman  requires  assistance,  and  that  the  slow  routine 
of  German  administration  willingly  shelters  itself 
behind  the  comfortable  rigidity  of  political  considera- 
tions. 


It  was  the  women  who  first  called  the  attention  of 
the  State  to  the  necessity  of  supplementing  the 
decreasing  home-teaching  by  means  of  school 
instruction.  But  it  was  men  who  discussed  their 
propositions  round  the  green  cloth  of  exclusive 
Commissions,  and  before  Parliaments.  It  is  men 
who,  in  Ministerial  offices,  have  elaborated  pro- 
grammes and  methodical  instructions  for  general 
and  special  teaching  for  girls.  Finally,  it  is  men 
who  direct  girls'  schools,  and  monopolize  the  lessons 
they  themselves  consider  important,  giving  manual 
and  domestic  instruction  a  quite  secondary  place. 
Women  have  but  a  distant  and  indirect  influence  on 
the  feminine  education  of  girls. 
I  In  the  primary  school,  the  teaching  of  household 
management  has  only  become  obligatory  within  the 
last  few  years,  and  it  is  only  given  in  the  upper 
standards.  The  fear  of  injuring  general  instruction 
has  prevented  the  authorities  from  giving  it  the 
place  which  was  necessary  in  order  to  render  it 
—  220  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

efficacious.  This  has  been  so  strongly  felt  that  in 
Bavaria,  for  example,  young  girls  are  offered  an 
optional  supplementary  year  devoted  more  specially 
to  feminine  subjects.  In  other  states  the  organizing 
of  complementary  obligatory  teaching  equally  for 
girls  is  encouraged.  The  programmes  of  the  new 
institution  and  the  Ministerial  instructions  which 
accompany  them  give  a  very  excellent  impression. 
But,  on  looking  closer,  one  perceives  that  the  pro- 
fessional teaching  is  given  a  higher  place  than  the 
instruction  of  the  future  mothers  and  housewives. 
Administration  or  politics  ?  It  is  said  that  without 
the  lure  of  perfecting  professionalism  on  one  side,  and 
that  of  Hauswirtschaft  (domestic  economy)  on  the 
other,  politicians  would  not  have  agreed  as  to  the 
need  of  the  prolonged  obligation. 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  German  feminists,  the  free 
primary  school,  with  its  obligatory  extension,  cannot 
even  then  suffice  to  give  an  adequate  feminine 
education  to  the  daughters  of  the  people,  that  is,  to 
those  who  need  it  most. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  middle-class  schools. 
These  are  not  schools  in  the  same  sense  as  our 
primary  higher  schools,  doing  more  and  better  work 
than  the  ordinary  school.  Private  initiative,  parti- 
cular or  municipal,  has  created  them  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  daughters  of  the  manufacturing  or  trading 
middle  classes.  They,  consequently,  take  into 
account  the  desires  of  their  paying  patrons,  and 
these  demand  teaching  more  professional  than 
—  221  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

generally  and  purely  feminine.  When  in  1910  the 
Prussian  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  sketched  for 
them  a  typical  programme,  to  unify  their  teaching,  it 
was  hoped  to  accentuate  their  higher  primary  char- 
acter, and  place  in  a  good  position  theoretical  and 
practical  instruction  in  household  management. 
These  hopes  have  been  frustrated.  The  middle-class 
school  has  remained  the  school  of  a  certain  social 
class  (Standesschule) ,  with  professional  tendencies 
instead  of  becoming  a  continuation  school  to  the 
primary  school  (Begabungsschule)  for  the  good 
scholars  who  might  have  there  completed,  among 
other  things,  their  course  of  domestic  economy. 

Two  years  before — in  1908 — Prussia  reorganized 
on  a  new  basis  a  sort  of  secondary  instruction,  called 
superior,  for  the  girls  of  good  family  (Tochter).  It 
was  sought  to  unite  in  one  official  institution  the 
establishments,  public  or  private,  which,  until  then, 
prepared  the  daughters  of  officials  and  of  the  middle 
class  for  the  careers  of  teachers  of  girls,  or  the 
University  studies  which  had  just  been  opened  to 
them. 

A  course  of  study,  lasting  ten  years,  the 
Lyzeum  must  ensure  a  good  standard  of  general 
knowledge. 

On  this  common  basis  has  been  grafted  three 
years  of  classes  dubbed  scientific,  concluding  with  a 
year  of  practical  pedagogy,  for  the  use  of  future 
governesses  and  professors. 

Those  who  wish  to  acquire  the  knowledge  neces- 
—  222  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

sary  for  the  mistress  of  a  household,  for  the  mother, 
for  the  society  woman,  follow,  on  leaving  the  lyceum, 
for  two  years  the  lectures  at  the  Frauenschule 
(school  for  women).  The  programme  of  this  section 
is  very  attractive.  The  young  women  could  emerge 
experts  in  domestic  economy,  in  child  culture,  in 
relief,  in  hygiene,  in  Kindergarten,  and  I  know  not 
what  else,  if  the  teaching  were  less  scientific  and 
more  practical,  and  if  the  items  de  luxe  were  more 
judiciously  limited. 

The  decision  has  not  yet  been  taken,  since  1908, 
to  crown  this  original  edifice  by  a  Higher  Lyceum, 
which  would  prepare  the  students  for  a  final  examina- 
tion, always  indispensable  for  matriculation  at  the 
Universities.  This  preparation  remains  entrusted 
to  the  "  establishments  for  study  "  (Studienanstal- 
ten),  which  are  the  counterpart  of  the  "  Real " 
Gymnasiums  and  "  Real  "  Schools  for  boys.1  The 
students  enter  them  after  the  seventh  or  eighth  year 
of  general  studies. 

The  lyceums  for  young  German  girls  have  a 
definitely  "  Real "  character.  Mere  imitation  of 
the  boys'  secondary  schools  has  been  avoided. 


1  Prussia  possesses  thirty-four  Studienanstalten  Real 
Gymnasiums  (with  Latin,  but  no  Greek)  and  four  Studien- 
stalten,  Real  High  Schools.  These  are  muncipal  establish- 
ments. The  Lyceums  do  not  bestow  the  leaving  certifi- 
cate. In  certain  German  countries,  candidates  for  this 
certificate  are  admitted  in  the  upper  classes  of  boys'  second- 
ary schools. 

— 223  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

But,  such  as  they  are,  they  lead  to  everything  and 
to  nothing.  Their  usefulness  has  been  compromised, 
from  the  feminine  point  of  view,  by  the  spirit  which 
animates  their  operations.  It  is  men,  usually  philo- 
logists, who  direct  them.  The  principal  lectures 
are  given  by  men,  who  belong  to  the  Universities. 
The  presumed  advent  of  the  "  Lady  Directress  " 
formerly  gave  rise  to  jests.  Now,  feminists  believe 
that  under  feminine  rule  there  would  be  taught  more 
practical  hygiene  and  less  chemistry,  more  domestic 
science  and  less  time  would  be  spent  on  the  study 
of  the  French,  English  and  Italian  languages  and  of 
literature. 

The  War  has  been  for  this  famous  Frauen- 
schule  its  first  serious  trial.  The  fiasco  is  complete. 
Perhaps,  now,  the  decision  may  be  taken  to  associate 
women  in  this  work  to  a  greater  extent,  and  to  give 
up  the  methods  dear  to  men. 

*  *  * 

The  peril  is  urgent,  say  the  patriotic  women. 
The  "  new  Germany  "  needs  wives,  mothers,  chil- 
dren, at  once.  And  since  the  schools  have  not 
moulded  them,  and  will  not  be  able  to  mould  them 
soon,  the  idea  has  been  started  to  request  the  State 
to  exact  from  all  women  one  year  of  obligatory  service.1 

*  *  * 

The  analogy  with  the  military  compulsory  service 
for  men  is  evident.  What  deserves  to  be  underlined 

1  See  above,  p.  218,  note  i. 
—  224  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

is  that  German  militarism  pretends  to  regulate  the 
most  intimate  acts  as  well  as  the  most  commonplace 
in  private  life.  The  infection  has  seized  upon  the 
intelligent  women  who  impart  it  by  reasonings  of 
this  kind  to  their  compeers  who  have  remained  more 
in  touch  with  nature. 

Primary  and  complementary  education  is  com- 
pulsory both  for  boys  and  for  girls.  The  State 
needs  men  to  defend  the  Fatherland ;  it  enforces 
military  service.  Since  the  State  has  also  need  of 
women  to  conserve  the  same  Fatherland,  why  should 
women  not  prepare  themselves,  equally  by  a  time 
of  compulsory  service  ? 

The  State  is  authorized  to  disturb  the  lives  of 
young  men  by  calling  them  to  the  barracks  :  it 
deprives  the  general  economic  condition  of  the  coun- 
try of  innumerable  energies  that  could  be  better 
utilized  :  it  is  for  the  good  of  the  country,  without 
counting  that  army  discipline  is  an  excellent  train- 
ing for  the  majority  of  citizens.  If  the  State 
claimed  in  the  same  way  a  fixed  period  in  the  life  of 
the  young  women,  would  it  not  also  be  in  their 
interest  and  in  that  of  the  whole  community  ? 

These  reasonings  are  quite  in  the  spirit  of  a  Govern- 
ment which,  since  1914,  administers  the  country 
like  barracks,  which  regulates,  in  life's  smallest 
details,  the  public  and  private  existence  of  each 
individual,  and  which  has  just  requisitioned  the 
civilian  populations  purely  and  simply  for  its 
political  necessities. 

—  225  —  p 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

The  unexpected  turn  of  this  war  has  driven  the 
Germans  to  push  militarism  to  its  final  consequences. 
They  are  proceeding  to  do  it  in  the  same  spirit  which 
they  bring  to  their  scientific  deductions.  It  remains 
to  be  seen  if  the  application  of  this  has  not  in  store 
for  them  disappointment. 

Certain  German  feminists — and  not  the  least 
among  them — consider  the  compulsory  service  of 
women  as  a  logical  ideal  solution.  "  The  compul- 
sory service  of  women,  in  time  of  peace  as  in  time  of 
war,  consists  in  preserving  and  developing  the 
strength  of  the  nation,"  says  Frau  Helene  Lange. 
That  means  that  in  peace  time,  woman  shall  be  a 
prolific  and  prudent  mother,  capable  of  bringing 
up  her  own  children  in  a  healthy  and  well-ordered 
home,  and,  besides,  of  helping  to  rear,  in  the  same 
way,  those  of  poor  mothers,  orphans,  etc.  In  doing 
this,  she  accomplishes  a  public  function.  She 
should,  therefore,  be  compelled  to  prepare  herself 
for  it  in  as  complete  a  manner  as  possible.  What  is 
this  but  saying  that  German  mothers  must  be  the 
providers  and  the  auxiliaries  of  the  Militarist 
Moloch  ?  From  the  beginning  of  peace  they  will 
produce  "  men  "  of  whom  the  Military  Staff  "  will 
make  soldiers."  In  war  time  they  will  constitute  a 
contingent  which  can  be  mobilized  and  used  for  the 
multiple  duties  at  the  bases  for  which  they  are  fitted. 
Hospital  nurses,  canteen  workers,  visitors  to  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers,  etc.  They  will  also 
be  employed  in  certain  works  and  functions  usually 
—  226  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

allotted  to  men.  So  as  to  prepare  and  train  them 
in  view  of  "  maternity  "  and  "  feminity "  (the 
German  feminists  have  not  failed  to  expatiate  on 
the  terms  Mutter schaft  and  Mutterlichkeit),  they 
will  be  obliged  to  follow  a  free  course  of  instruction, 
The  war  has  brought  to  light  the  insufficiency  of 
their  benevolent  preparation.  In  the  future  the 
Military  Staff  and  the  Government  must  not  be 
embarrassed  by  them,  as  has  happened  this  time. 
It  will  be  necessary  to  be  able  to  go  to  war  with  the 
certainty  that  the  reaction  on  and  the  consequences 
for  one's  own  country  are  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
Women's  occupations  are,  it  is  true,  peace  occupa- 
tions. But  peace  for  the  Germans  is  one  continual 
preparation  for  war.  Civilian  life  is,  with  them, 
subordinated  to  the  business  of  war. 

The  feminists  who  have  begotten  this  patriotic 
proposition  defend  themselves,  with  many  quibbles, 
against  desiring  to  encourage  war.  Military  hypnot- 
ism has  given  them  the  tone  of  sincerity,  but  hides 
from  them  the  social  dangers  and  the  unrealizable 
folly  of  their  thesis.  Some,  both  men  and  women, 
have  been  found  who  are  opposed  to  the  discipline 
of  such  a  public  course  of  instruction.  Others 
prefer,  for  the  training  of  young  girls  for  maternity 
and  feminity,  the  gentle  and  natural  school  of 
family  life,  and,  to  complete  it,  the  teaching  of 
expert  mistresses.1  Supposing  that  the  State  dared 

1  Fraiilein   Marfa   von   Sacher   Masoch   denounces    the 
project  as  a  preparation  in  view  of  a  future  war  (Vossische 
—  227  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

to  impose  upon  the  nation  the  enormous  financial 
effort  necessary  to  enlist  and  house  in  barracks  the 
women  during  a  settled  period  of  their  youth,  at 
what  age  would  they  be  called  up  ?  At  the  con- 
clusion of  school  life  ?  The  time  is  not  the  same  for 
poor  as  for  rich  girls.  Before  they  become  mothers 
or  wives  ?  But  in  "  virtuous  "  Germany,  as  well  as 
elsewhere,  the  heart  of  the  girls  has  reasons  for 
advancing  the  date,  reasons  which  will  not  take 
into  account  the  needs  of  the  State.  Perhaps  even, 
persons  marry  earlier  in  Germany  than  in  other 
countries.  The  Germans  are  too  far  from  demo- 
cratic equality  to  admit  the  promiscuous  intercourse 
of  the  barracks  for  even  all  men.  So  much  the 
stronger  reason  for  not  permitting  it  for  women. 
Would  the  poor  be  lodged  in  the  barracks,  while 
the  rich  were  lodged  and  fed  at  their  own  charges, 
like  one  year  volunteers'?  It  is  well  known  that 
without  parcels  from  home,  the  most  robust  young 
man  would  waste  away  on  "  rations  "  only.  What 
would  it  be  for  young  girls  ?  Finally  the  moral 
effect  of  service  in  common  is  more  debatable  with 
regard  to  women  than  men.  These  schemes  do  not 
take  into  account  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  mobil- 
ize, even  if  only  for  a  time,  all  the  women  who  are 
already  filling  the  place  of  the  men  who  have  been 
carried  away  by  the  whirlwind.  In  peace  time, 

Zeitung.  January  16,  1916).     Frau  Kathe  Sprockhoff  tries 
to  refute  this  (Ibid.,  February  6,  1916).    These  two  articles 
mark  the  extreme  opposites  of  the  thesis. 
—  228  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

how  many  are  there  who  replace,  notably  in  country 
districts,  brothers  who  are  with  the  colours  ? 

And  when  Germany  has  been  transformed  into 
vast  barracks,  is  it  intended  to  seek  outside  for 
helots  who  will  maintain  the  choice  "  valiant  for 
the  war  "  men  and  women,  constituted  according  to 
the  militarist  dream  ? 


Let  us,  from  this  strange  hypnotic  feminism,  re- 
tain the  fact  that  the  German  woman  has  not  risen  to 
the  height  of  her  circumstances.  It  is  seriously  feared 
in  Germany  that  her  insufficiency  will  retard  the 
recovery  of  the  country  worn  out  by  the  war.  The 
remedy  is  being  sought.  But  instead  of  getting 
to  the  root  of  the  evil  to  fight  it,  they  await  the 
healing  properties  of  the  war.  Nothing  is  more 
significant  than  the  frequent  commencement  of 
articles:  "The  War  was  necessary  to  .  .  .,"  or 
"  War  is  a  great  master,"  every  time  dire  neces- 
sity has  forced  upon  the  authorities  some  inno- 
vation long  desired  and  always  refused.  The  writ- 
ings of  German  feminists  seem  to  breathe  a  sigh 
of  approaching  freedom.  But  the  nationalist  spirit, 
which  inspires  most  of  them,  is  it  quite  that  which  is 
required  to  end  the  bondage  which  men,  the  directing 
agents,  have  laid  upon  their  cause,  as  upon  many 
others,  for  political  ends  ?  In  Prussia,  less  than 
anywhere,  would  the  Administration  care  to  give 
way  "  to  women." 

—  229  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

When  the  war  constrained  the  Prussian  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction  to  fill  the  posts  left  vacant  by 
masters  who  were  called  up  every  expedient  was 
tried  until  exhausted  ;  combining  of  several  classes, 
fewer  lessons,  etc.  Next,  reservists  were  called  upon 
to  assist,  even  men  holding  diplomas  considered 
insufficient  in  normal  times,  or  not  certificated  at 
all,  as  long  as  they  were  able  to  "  manage  a  class," 
which  means,  above  all,  to  be  able  to  keep  discipline. 
And  only  then  were  women  called  upon.  During 
the  first  year  of  the  war,  a  hundred  women  professors 
were  delegated  to  the  boys'  secondary  schools  in 
Berlin  itself.  This  trial  scheme  was  hailed  as  an 
"  unheard-of  event  "  !  Never  before  had  the  doors 
of  a  boys'  secondary  school  been  even  ajar  for  them. 
It  appears  they  were  a  success,  except  in  one  case, 
sufficiently  typical  to  be  mentioned.  One  of  these 
young  mistresses  dared  to  complain  to  the  hooligans 
that  they  were  not  respectful  towards  her,  that  they 
were  not  gentlemen,  and  that  they  behaved  less 
well  than  "  American  boys."  The  unfortunate 
teacher  had  to  resign  her  post. 

The  Prussian  Minister  has  even  foreseen  more 
extended  employment  for  women  after  the  war,  at 
least,  in  primary  schools.  All  the  same,  he  has 
carefully  watered  the  proportion.  In  girls'  schools, 
the  junior  classes  may  be  held  by  mistresses.  In 
boys'  schools,  the  junior  classes  may  be  entrusted 
to  them.  One-third  of  the  teaching  staff  of  mixed 
schools  may  be  women.  And  the  Minister  expressly 
—  230  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

urges  that  in  no  case  shall  be  admitted  any  candi- 
dates but  those  of  proved  physique.  So  persistent 
is  the  prejudice  against  the  "  weaker  "  sex. 

While  admitting,  under  the  pressure  of  circum- 
stances, and  only  provisionally,  widowed  teachers 
with  children,  and  retaining  in  their  employment 
mistresses  married  since  the  beginning  of  the  War 
(Kriegsgetraut) ,  the  Minister  does  not  intend  to 
break  with  the  principle  which  excludes  all  married 
teachers  from  the  work  of  teaching.  The  feminists 
have  thought  that  the  war  would  contribute  to 
abolish  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  women  pro- 
fessors. It  is  true  that  they  are  not  called  upon  to 
take  vows  at  the  beginning  of  their  career  ;  a  place 
is  found  for  them,  even  though  it  is  a  restricted 
proportion,  and  in  the  least  important  posts.  But 
if  they  are  able  to  marry,  they  renounce  their  posts 
and  the  rights  acquired  by  years  of  work.  That  is  a 
flagrant  injustice.  Would  not  married  teachers, 
wives  and  mothers,  replace  better  than  soured  old 
maids  the  mother  with  the  girls,  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  feminine  teaching  ?  A  reply  made 
by  a  Medical  Inspector  l  to  this  inadmissible  heresy 


1  Oberlehrererin  Lydia  Stocker  pleads  the  cause  of  the 
married  teacher  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung  of  January  23, 
1916.  Doctor  Theilhaber  also  seeks  to  combat  the  pre- 
judice against  her,  sanctioned  by  school  legislation  (Ibid., 
March  u,  1916).  On  the  contrary  the  Schulinspektor 
Doctor  Schepp,  of  Berlin,  snubs  "  in  the  Prussian  manner  " 
his  fellow  member,  gained  over  to  the  feminist  demands. 
(Ibid.,  March  17,  1916). 

—  231  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

should  be  read.  "  Already,  before  the  War,  women 
obstructed  public  education.  They  bar  the  way  to 
proved  and  deserving  men-teachers.  The  Adminis- 
tration has  been  obliged  to  make  a  momentary  appeal 
for  their  services — unfortunately  for  the  children. 
How  dare  any  one  compare  Germany  to  Italy, 
Portugal,  Spain,  Servia  e  tutti  quanti  (this  polite 
official  has  been  unwilling  to  mention  France),  where 
women-teachers  may  marry  !  It  is  well-known  that 
motherhood  is  incompatible  with  the  teacher's 
profession,  and  that  teachers  are  too  often  away  from 
their  work.  We  intend,"  he  concludes,  "  to  educate 
a  generation  oj  blood  and  iron.  It  is  necessary  for 
this  to  increase  the  masculine  staff,  and  not  allow  the 
feminine  influence  to  increase.'9 


Here,  expressed  with  the  typical  roughness  of 
Prussian  patriots,  is  the  reason  of  the  mistrust  of  the 
Administration  with  regard  to  the  education  of  the 
younger  generations  by  women.  The  example  of 
Prussia  has  gained  over  the  other  States.  Is  it 
surprising  that  feminine  pedagogy  should  have  found 
so  little  sympathy  in  Imperial  Germany  ?  Only  a 
secondary  importance  has  been  granted  to  it. 
Unwillingness  only  just  escapes  being  hostility. 
Militarist  pride,  drawn  towards  education  in  valour 
in  view  of  military  service  (Erziehung  zur  Wehrhaftig- 
keit),  and  preoccupied  with  the  formation  of  citizens  of 
the  Empire  in  view  of  the  political  ideal  of  the  greatest 
—  232  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

and  most  powerful  Germany,  has  misunderstood  the 
economic  and  social  value  of  woman.  "  Kultur  " 
would  have  it  believed  that  the  ancient  German 
virtues  connected  with  hearth  and  home  are  still 
persistent.  From  this  arise  the  half-measures  and 
delays  of  the  Administration  in  face  of  fresh  needs 
created  by  the  modern  evolution. 

To  those  who  have  recalled  Fenelon's  treatise  on 
the  education  of  the  young  girls,  or  the  example 
of  Madame  de  Maintenon  founding  the  School  of 
Saint  Cyr,  and  to  those  who  praised  the  educational 
methods  for  girls  inaugurated  in  France,  England 
and  Switzerland,  it  was  answered  that  German 
women  had  nothing  to  learn  from  outside,  quite  the 
contrary.  A  regular  campaign  was  started,  since 
the  war,  against  the  boarding-schools  in  French 
Switzerland,  where  many  German  families  sent 
their  daughters. l  The  execution  of  Miss  Cavell  gives 
the  measure  of  German  contempt  for  English  women, 
so  admirable  in  their  work  for  the  army  and  their 
toil  at  the  base.  Germany  cannot  boast,  like 
England,  of  having  found  among  its  women  of  good 
will  85  per  cent,  of  the  workers  occupied  in  the 
manufacture  of  war  material. 

As  to  Frenchwomen,  perhaps  the  day  may  come 

1  Franzosische  Pensionate  from  the  Frankfurter  General 
Anzeiger  in  the  Neues  Wiener  Journal,  September  30, 
1915.  Lucken  in  der  Frauenbildung  of  the  Stadtschulrat 
Doctor  Miiller  (Wiesbaden),  in  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung, 
Jfaly  ii,  1916. 

—  233  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

when  Germans  will  blush  for  their  behaviour  with 
regard  to  them.  They  have  feigned  to  ignore  their 
qualities  as  wives,  mothers,  and  citizens.  The  war 
will  have  taught  them  to  recognize  these. 

There  have  been  in  France  and  England  critics 
who  have  spoken  of  the  women  during  the  war- 
Not  one  has  formulated  judgments  comparable  to 
the  severe  condemnations  that  German  men  and 
women  have  pronounced  against  the  German  women. 
Feminine  pedagogy  is  nowhere  perfect.  But  it  is 
to  be  believed  that  it  is  everywhere  better  than  in 
Germany.  That  is  what  the  war  will  have  taught 
to  us.  Will  it  teach  German  feminists  that  their 
duty  is  to  free  feminine  pedagogy  from  militarism 
and  politics,  instead  of  associating  it  with  them  more 
closely  ?  It  is  not  very  certain. 


—  234  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  German  Scholastic  Propaganda  in  Foreign 
Countries  before  and  during  the  War 

THE  absorbing  power  of  Germany  had  become 
evident  in  the  ever  increasing  number  of 
schools  that  she  maintained  in  foreign  countries 
before  the  war.  Exact  statistics  of  these  have  never 
been  published.1  When,  after  1870,  a  census  of 
outside  German  elements  was  begun,  twenty-four 
schools  were  counted  in  European  countries.  Nearly 
all  were  religious  foundations.  A  few,  like  S. 
Peter's  School  and  the  Reformed  School  in  Copen- 
hagen or  the  S.  Mary's  and  S.  George's  Schools  in 
London,  date  from  the  eighteenth  century.  Over- 
seas, there  were  scarcely  more  than  twenty.  In 
1905  the  figures  were  1,000  schools  with  12,800 
pupils,  and  in  1907  1,242  schools  with  64,600  pupils. 

1  It  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  properly  accre- 
dited schools,  organized  and  stable,  and  lectures  for  stu- 
dents, intermittent  and  ephemeral ;  between  the  schools 
of  ancient  foundation,  independent  of  the  metropolis,  and 
those  which  have  been  created  since  1870  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  Deutschtum. 

™_     1 Q  ^      ---m_. 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

These  figures  permit  one  to  measure  the  rapidity 
and  rate  of  the  progress.  A  year  before  the  war  the 
number  of  children  instructed  in  foreign  countries 
by  Germans,  in  German,  and  especially  in  the 
German  spirit,  was  estimated  at  100,000.  About 
three-fourths  of  these  were  sons  or  daughters  of 
German  parents,  Austrians,  or  German  Swiss.  It 
is  therefore  a  relatively  important  contingent  of 
children  originally  non-Germanic,  and  of  their 
families,  that  the  German  schools  claim-  to  teach  and 
maintain  in  sympathy  with  "  Kultur." 

In  these  numbers  the  schools  in  the  American 
United  States  peopled  by  Germans  are  not  counted. 
Undoubtedly  these  schools  are  American  schools. 
But,  taking  advantage  of  the  great  liberty  which 
characterizes  scholastic  organization  in  the  United 
States,  the  Germans  have  given  their  impress  to 
about  4,000  schools,  with  7,000  masters,  and  about 
300,000  pupils.  At  least  these  are  the  numbers 
they  themselves  give. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  there  are  twenty-two 
millions  of  Germans  established  outside  the  Empire. 
Adding  to  this  number,  on  one  side,  populations  of 
German  origin,  naturalized,  but  not  assimilated 
like  the  fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  German- 
Americans  in  the  United  States,  and,  on  the  other, 
foreigners  educated  in  Germany  or  by  Germans, 
one  understands  that  the  subjects  of  William  II  have 
ceased  to  be  "  culture  fertilizer  "  (Kultur dunger]  in 
foreign  countries,  to  become  an  active  and  powerful 
—  236  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

fermenting  agency  of  the  German  penetration 
throughout  the  world. 

The  present  war  has  shown  how  German  ambitions 
intended  to  profit  by  this  penetration.  In  the 
United  States  the  "  German- American  citizens  " 
have  gravely  imperilled  the  political  order  of  the 
great  Republic.  Bulgaria  has  been  drawn  into  the 
Austro-German  camp  by  a  Prime  Minister  who  was 
formerly  a  student  at  Heidelberg.  The  Turkish 
ally  has  been  schooled  by  Germany  since  the  acces- 
sion of  William  II.  Switzerland  has  been  obliged 
to  take  serious  measures  in  order  to  protect  the 
harmony  of  its  citizens  against  the  dissolving  influ- 
ence of  the  German  Imperialists. 

Briefly,  the  war  has  made  the  whole  world  feel 
the  power  of  the  "  national  "  propaganda  which 
Germany  had  prepared,  by  making  her  public 

instruction  an  article  for  exportation. 
*  *  * 

In  1910  the  imposing  German  pedagogical  exhibi- 
tion in  Brussels  contained  a  very  instructive  collec- 
tion dealing  with  German  expansion  throughout  the 
world,  notably  maps  and  diagrams.  With  a  view 
to  advertisement,  they  were  exhibited  in  the  lecture- 
room  of  the  section.  Besides  this,  thousands  of 
copies  of  a  pamphlet,  summing  up  the  work  of  the 
"  Society  for  Germanism  abroad."  ("  Verein  fur 
das  Deutschtum  Auslande — V.D.A. — Allgemeiner 
Deutscher  Schulverein — E.V")  were  distributed. 

This  private  Society  was  founded  in  1881.  Its 
-237  - 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

object  is  to  aid  the  diffusion  of  German  teaching 
outside  the  empire.  It  is  directed  by  men  having 
practical  experience  of  foreign  nations.  Until  last 
year  its  acting  president  was  a  former  Minister  of 
State  :  to-day  it  is  directed  by  a  former  ambassador. 
Nearly  60,000  members  belong  to  numerous  (260) 
local  committees :  a  bulletin  numbering  50,000 
copies,1  and  annual  receipts  of  more  than  710,000 
marks  give  some  idea  of  the  powerful  action  of  this 
Society. 

Needless  to  say  that  the  Imperial  Government 
largely  subsidized  such  a  precious  auxiliary  to 
German  influence  throughout  the  world.  Com- 
merce follows  language ;  wherever  the  German 
language  penetrates,  German  goods  will  follow. 
Already,  in  about  1875,  the  Empire  had  voted  for 

1  The  committee  of  this  Society  publish  a  quarterly 
official  bulletin,  called  Das  Deutschtum  im  Ausland  (Hil- 
ger,  Berlin)  ;  the  twentieth  number  is  the  one  of  the  second 
quarter  in  1914.  The  collection  is  to  be  found  in  the  Peda- 
gogic Museum  in  Paris  (41  rue  Gay  Lussac  5.).  The  Museum 
also  receives  the  monthly  bulletin  of  the  "  Society  of  Ger- 
man teachers  abroad,"  which  is  entitled  Die  Deutsche 
Schule  im  Ausland,  and  which  is  in  its  third  year  (1914). 
One  finds  in  these  two  collections  all  documents  necessary 
for  a  comprehensive  study  of  our  rivals'  efforts  to  further, 
in  foreign  countries,  German  culture  by  scholastic  methods. 
For  the  present  study  we  have  used  articles  published  on 
this  question  in  the  great  German  Press  since  the  war 
began.  These  are  partly  communications  made  by  the 
Society  V.D.A.  to  several  hundred  newspapers  in  Germany 
and  abroad.  Our  sources  of  information  are  therefore 'of 
the  best. 

-238- 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

this  propaganda  a  subvention  of  375,000  marks.  This 
amount  not  being  utilized  owing  to  the  lack  of  a 
distributing  agency  it  was  reduced  to  75,000  marks. 
There  were  other  reasons  for  this  deduction.  Part  of 
these  subsidized  schools  partook  of  a  "  confessional  " 
character,  which  seemed,  to  certain  politicians, 
incompatible  with  the  neutrality  inherent  to  a  State 
subvention.  Besides,  the  manner  in  which  this 
propaganda  was  administered  by  the  directors  from 
the  metropolis,  brought  protests  to  the  Home 
Government  from  the  foreign  Powers.  It  was 
feared  that  the  official  subsidy  would  assume  the 
character  of  a  too-direct  interference  by  the  German 
Government  in  the  management  of  scholastic  estab- 
lishments which,  in  spite  of  their  German  origin, 
must  remain  obedient  to  the  laws  of  the  countries 
in  which  they  were  situated.  With  the  above- 
named  private  Society  no  such  complication  was 
to  be  feared.  Thus,  in  1895,  the  Government  raised 
the  subsidy  to  100,000  marks  ;  it  appears  in  the 
Budget  of  1914  at  the  sum  of  1,500,000  marks. 

Directed  by  competent  men;  helped  by  the 
State,  and  by  the  private  enterprise  of  the  metro- 
polis as  much  as  by  German  or  Germanophil  agglo- 
merations in  foreign  countries  ;  efficiently  sustained 
by  diplomatic  and  consular  agents :  grouping 
around  a  German  hearth  the  kindred  elements, 
Austrians,  Swiss,  Scandinavians,  without  distinctions 
of  faith,  the  Society  for  German  Expansion  in  Foreign 
Countries  "  has  known  how  to  create  and  develop 
—  239  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

schools  very  greatly  appreciated  in  the  surroundings 
where  they  exist.  The  teaching  methods  being 
those  of  the  German  programmes,  it  was  relatively 
easy  to  adapt  the  books  and  school  requisites  to  the 
needs  of  each  country.  German  editors  lend  them- 
selves willingly  to  this  adaptation.  When  class- 
books  used  in  the  metropolis  can  be  utilized  just  as 
they  are,  they  present  to  the  Society  the  obsolete 
editions.  Where  the  language  used  in  teaching 
must  or  may  be  the  speech  of  the  foreign  country, 
an  excellent  plan  for  attracting  the  children  of  the 
native  families,  the  German  language  does  none  the 
less  play  a  preponderating  part.  In  every  way  it  is 
always  German  ideas  which  form  the  basis  of  the 
teaching. 

The  great  difficulty  is  always  the  choice  of  good 
masters.  The  Society  has  been  enabled  to  recruit 
150  professors  with  University  degrees,  and  about 
i, 800  masters  holding  a  training  college  diploma, 
without  counting  women  teachers  more  or  less 
certificated.  It  does  not  fear  to  enrol  French  or 
English  masters  or  mistresses  when  one  of  these 
languages  is  taught  in  its  schools,  for  the  German 
school  in  foreign  countries  is  very  supple  and  very 
accommodating,  and  consequently  very  much  to  be 
feared.  It  is,  in  many  lands,  small  and  poor, 
obsequious  and  slightingly  regarded,  but  very 
tenacious.  Prosperous,  it  knows  how  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  itself.  An  example  : — 

The  German  school  in  Brussels  figured  at  the 
—  240  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Exhibition  of  1910  ex  aeqito  with  the  model 
establishments  of  the  Fatherland.  The  Berlin 
Government  had  delegated  several  of  its  professors 
to  the  various  international  committees,  where  they 
sat  with  noted  educationists  of  other  great  countries. 
At  the  school  itself  gatherings  and  exhibitions 
succeeded  each  other,  presided  over  by  some  Excel- 
lence or  Highness.  It  was  a  good  advertisement. 
The  German  schools  at  Antwerp  and  other  Belgian 
towns  profited  thereby.  The  staff  of  the  Antwerp 
schools  is  particularly  active.1  The  German  colony 
of  the  great  Belgian  emporium,  numerous,  rich,  and 
powerful,  has  largely  contributed,  as  much  in  its 
own  interest  as  from  patriotic  duty,  to  raise  its 
primary,  secondary,  and  technical  schools  to  the 
level  of  the  best  establishments  in  Germany.2  In 
all  meetings  where  questions  of  programmes  and 
methods,  interests  and  qualifications  of  the  staff, 
etc.,  in  German  schools  in  foreign  countries  are  dis- 
cussed, the  experiences  and  demands  of  the  Antwerp 
staff  are  cited  as  examples. 
The  scholastic  activity  of  the  Germans  in  Belgium 

1  On  December  7,  1913,  the  meeting  of  the  "  Association 
of  German  Teachers  in  Belgium  and  Holland,"  was  held  at 
Antwerp.     They  number  seventy  who  work  at  Antwerp, 
Brussels,  Liege,  Ghent,   Hoboken  and    Neerpelt,    and    at 
Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  the  Hague,  and  Venlo. 

2  The  "  German  General  School  "  at  Antwerp  counts 
812  pupils,  boys  and  girls,  and  41  masters.     Its  superannua- 
tion   fund,   proceeding    entirely    from   gifts,    amounts    to 
180,000  francs. 

—  241  —  Q 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

has  been  brought  to  light  by  the  sad  events  of  the 
war.  The  decrees  of  Governor  von  Bissing  ordering 
school  attendance  in  the  unhappy  occupied  districts, 
and  the  creation  of  the  Flemish  University  at  Ghent, 
are  measures  in  agreement  with  the  pretensions  of 
German  policy  to  exercise  protectorship  over  smaller 
nations.  Those  in  Belgium  who,  before  the  war, 
had  praised  such  measures,  to  the  great  embarrass- 
ment of  the  Belgium  Government,  anxious  to  main- 
tain a  good  understanding  between  citizens  of 
different  origins,  languages,  and  religions,  were 
obedient  to  ideas  sown  by  German  or  Germanizing 
pedagogues  established  in  the  country.  We  will 
shortly  quote  other  example  not  less  conclusive  of 
the  effects  of  this  propoganda.  Let  us  return  to  our 
organization. 

The  Metropolitan  Society  for  the  Extension  of 
Germanism  in  Foreign  Countries  has  affiliated  socie- 
ties in  all  the  great  centres  of  the  empire,  and  even 
in  German-speaking  countries  outside  the  empire, 
At  Hamburg,  for  example,  an  imposing  group 
founded  in  1904  occupies  itself  principally  with  the, 
German  schools  in  South  America.  Nearly  £10,000 
in  cash  and  more  than  £1,000  in  books  and  materials 
have  been  distributed  by  this  group  alone,  which 
numbered,  in  1913,  875  members.  An  appeal  for 
funds,  addressed  to  the  people  the  same  year,  under 
the  following  title,  "  Help  the  German  Schools  in 
South  America,"  brought  in  more  than  £r,ooo. 
The  efforts  of  the  Society  and  of  its  groups  tend,  in  the 
—  242  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

first  instance,  to  interest  the  mass  of  the  public  in  its 
effort  at  patriotic  propaganda. 

The  Imperial  Government  does  not  only  help  by 
subsidies.  The  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  and  the 
Colonial  Office  require  that  all  their  agents  should 
lend  to  the  masters,  pastors  or  missionaries  all  the 
support  of  their  authority.  Ambassadors  and 
Ministers  attend,  with  their  families  and  entire 
staffs,  the  school  festivals  in  their  neighbourhood. 
The  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  has  taken 
measures,  notably  in  1905  and  1908,  to  enable  duly 
qualified  masters  to  teach  in  foreign  schools  without 
prejudice  to  their  careers.  It  shows  that  the  choice 
of  these  instructors  is  made  with  the  greatest  care. 
The  possession  of  a  training  college  diploma  or  a 
University  degree  is  not  always  sufficient .  Having 
to  instruct  children  who  do  not  know  German — 
children  of  native  families — or,  if  children  of  German 
parentage  who  speak  with  their  comrades  the 
language  of  the  country,  the  masters  must  them- 
selves know,  as  well  as  possible,  the  language  of  the 
country  where  they  desire  to  teach.  They  must 
also  possess  social  gifts  facilitating  their  entrance 
into  foreign  society.  Finally,  only  those  masters 
who  have  a  knowledge  of  the  political,  social  and 
economic  milieu  where  they  are  expected  to 
"  work "  for  German  influence  are  sent  abroad. 
To  effect  this,  there  is  a  question  of  creating  a  true 
special  University  for  agents  sent  abroad  (A  uslands- 
hochschule). 

—  243  — 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

This  establishment,  largely  discussed  in  the  general 
and  special  Press,1  is  of  a  nature  to  call  for  our 
attention.  In  1913  the  Reichstag  had  before  it  a 
project  signed  by  Erzberger  and  von  Richthofen  in 
view  of  the  creation  of  this  institution  by  the 
Empire.  Another  deputy,  Doctor  Hager,  submitted 
a  similar  proposition  to  the  Prussian  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  These  projects  found  support  among  the 
most  important  members  of  Parliament,  especially 
among  those  representing  commerce  and  industry. 
No  matter  if  it  is  the  "  Oriental  Seminary  "  at  the 
University  of  Berlin  which  is  to  be  enlarged  or  the 
other  Colonial  or  Commercial  Institutes  of  Kiel  or  of 
Hamburg,  the  idea  is  to  found  one  vast  institution, 
endowed  with  tuition,  libraries,  collections,  etc., 
where  all  those  diplomatists,  consuls,  professors, 
who  will  go  abroad  as  pioneers  and  representatives 
of  Germanism,  can  equip  themselves  with  linguistic, 
historical,  political,  social  and  industrial  information. 
The  war  has  given  to  this  project  a  powerful  present 
interest.  It  has  again  been  taken  up  by  the  Press, 
and  its  realization  recommended  as  very  urgent.2 
It  is  realized,  on  the  east  of  the  Rhine,  that  the  war 
has  arrested  or  destroyed  commercial  and  social 
activity  in  most  foreign  countries.  It  is  also  known 
that  the  declared  or  latent  hostility  against  the 
Germans  will  render  its  resumption  after  the  war 

1  Berliner  Tageblatt,  November  24  and  26,  1915,  among 
others. 

2  Kolnische  Zeitung,   January  31,   1917  (No  104). 

—  244  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

much  more  difficult.  There  is,  in  fine,  the  conscious- 
ness that  this  resumption  is  a  vital  necessity  for 
Germany.  It  is  therefore  needful  to  prepare  at  once 
a  staff  capable  of  advantageously  combating  with 

the  other  nations,  and  most  particularly  with  France. 
*  *  * 

The  kind  of  schools  the  Germans  found,  or  pre- 
ferably develop  in  the  countries  where  they  traffic, 
are  "  Real  Schule " ;  that  is  establishments  in 
preparation  for  practical  life.  Without  being  from 
the  point  of  view  of  theoretic  studies  the  complete 
equivalent  of  similar  establishments  in  the  metro- 
polis, the  German  and  Austrian  Ministers  admit, 
nevertheless,  without  any  other  formality,  pupils 
from  these  schools  to  their  establishments  for 
advanced  studies  in  pure  or  applied  science,  to  the 
commercial  high  schools,  etc.  This  favour  not  only 
encourages  German  functionaries  and  traders  to 
have  their  children  instructed  near  them,  in  their 
distant  home,  but  also  attracts  the  native  children. 

Special  care  is  given  to  girls'  schools.  Women 
are  excellent  apostles  of  the  instruction  and  educa- 
tion they  have  received.  Not  long  ago,  the  German 
Girls'  School  in  Bucharest  was  seeking  in  France  a 
school  mistress  agregee,  or  at  least  a  licenciee  to 
whom  was  promised  a  very  substantial  salary  !  In 
the  girls'  primary  schools  the  teaching  is  generally 
given  by  deaconesses. 

The  small  schools  are,  mostly,  in  the  care  of  the 
pastors    who    founded    them.    But    the    general 
—  245  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

tendency  is  to  free  the  important  school,  at  least  in 
as  far  as  teaching  is  concerned,  from  their  denomi- 
national influence. 

The  "  Society  for  the  Expansion  of  Germanism  in 
Foreign  Countries "  can  flatter  itself  on  having 
obtained  fine  results  through  the  schools.  It  has 
developed,  in  little  more  than  thirty  years,  an 
indefatigable  ardour.  It  openly  declares  that  its 
propaganda  is  directed  principally  against  the 
powerful  activity  of  the  "  French  Alliance  "  and  the 
"  Jewish  Alliance."  One  understands  its  regrets  at 
seeing  its  work  compromised  by  the  war,  and  its 
hopes  of  being  able  to  take  it  up  again  with  renewed 
vigour  after  the  conclusion  of  peace  dashed  to  the 
ground.  This  is  why  it  seems  to  us  noteworthy  to 
illustrate  its  projects  with  some  examples  drawn  from 

the  German  daily  Press  of  the  last  few  months. 
*  *  * 

From  the  opening  of  hostilities,  the  Society  has 
mobilized  its  adherents.  It  placed  itself  entirely 
in  the  service  of  the  war  propaganda,  so  as  to 
"  vigorously  combat,"  so  it  is  said  in  the  report  of 
the  general  assembly  for  1915, l  "the  campaign  o* 
mendacity  long  prepared  by  the  enemies." 

Its  principal  field  of  action  has  been  South  America > 
which  it  has  inundated  with  pamphlets  and  fly- 
sheets  in  Spanish  and  English.  It  has  created  for 

1  Held  at  Munich    October  2  and  3,   1915,    under    the 
auspices  of  the  Munich  group  and  the  Bavarian    Union 
(Vossische  Zeitung,  October  4,  1915). 
—  246  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

the  benefit  of  the  Latin  Republics  a  bi-monthly 
Review  entitled  Guerra  europea,  directed  by  M. 
Lauchez  y  Rosal,  in  agreement  with  the  "  Central 
Union  Germano  Argentine,"  and  sent  from  Berlin 
to  Spain  to  be  from  thence  distributed  in  the  His- 
pano-Portuguese  countries  of  South  America. 

In  the  Argentine  Republic  the  German  Society 
possesses  powerful  centres.  The  "  Germano- Argen- 
tine Scientific  Society  "  feels  strong  enough  to  think 
of  establishing  itself  in  its  own  premises  which 
it  will  construct  with  "  the  subsidies  from  the 
Vaterland."  In  1912  the  Empire's  subsidy  to  the 
German  schools  in  Argentine  was  719,000  marks. 
Except  the  group  of  Buenos-Aires  (Germania 
Schule)  which  comprises  a  "  Real  "  school  of  nine 
classes,  a  high  school  for  girls  of  six  classes,  and 
a  primary  school  equally  of  six  classes,  and  which 
had  before  the  war  a  total  of  446  pupils,  few 
German  schools  in  the  country  counted  more  than 
sixty  scholars.  The  position  of  teachers  in  the  pro- 
vinces, which  formerly  was  that  of  servants  (peones) 
has,  it  is  stated,  greatly  improved.1  It  is  alleged, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  in  many  places  the  child- 
ren of  German  colonists  willingly  neglect  the  lan- 
guage of  their  parents,  and  prefer  to  speak  Spanish. z 

The  Germans  seem  to  indulge  in  illusions  as  to  the 
effects  produced  there  by  their  war  propaganda. 
The  Berliner  Tageblatt 3  inserted  with  satisfaction  the 

1  Deutsche  Schule  im  Ausland,  vol.  xii,  1913,  p.  423. 

2  Ibid,  p.  511.  3  September  6,  1915. 

—  247  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

laudatory  mention  of  Germany's  economic  and 
financial  organization,  delivered  by  Senator  Adolfo 
Davila  in  the  Argentine  First  Chamber  in  August, 
1915.  The  Berlin  paper  is  pleased  to  underline  Mr. 
Davila's  qualities  as  chief  editor  of  the  greatest 
South  American  newspaper,  the  Prensa.  "  Since," 
it  says,  "  this  important  person  has  chosen  the 
tribune  of  his  Parliament  rather  than  the  columns  of 
his  paper  to  proclaim  German  superiority,  it  is  that 
the  Anglo-Franco-North-American  lies  had  closed  his 
mouth,  as  also  those  of  many  of  his  brethren,  and 
that  the  powerful  success  of  the  German  arms  begins 
to  open  their  eyes."  It  seems  to  us  infinitely  more 
probable  that  the  Senator's  discourse  did  not  aim  so 
much  at  praising  Germany  as  to  warning  his  fellow- 
citizens  against  her  powerful  organization.  The 
silence  of  the  journalist  is  more  significant,  and 
rather  implies  a  check  to  German  propaganda. 

Undoubtedly  Germany  has  obtained  a  foothold  in 
the  Argentine  Republic,  and  she  will  do  everything  to 
maintain  herself  therein.  However,  the  disappear- 
ance of  her  merchant  fleet  and  the  ruin  of  her  enter- 
prises there,  from  which  the  much- vaunted  "  organ- 
ization "  has  withdrawn  the  best  workmen  to  turn 
into  soldiers,  will  speak  to  the  Argentine  in  a  language 
far  more  truthful  than  that  of  the  leaflets  issued 
by  the  anti-democratic  propagandists  of  William  II. 
In  the  future,  the  concerted  influence  of  the  United 
States,  England,  France  and  Italy  will  not,  it  seems, 
have  much  trouble  in  paralyzing  German  push. 
—  248  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Let  us  note,  in  passing,  that  the  Chilian  Govern- 
ment subsidizes  rather  largely  a  certain  number  of 
German  schools  in  the  country,  but  that  it  has 
reduced  by  one  half,  in  1913,  the  subvention  to  the 
important  schools  of  Valdivia  (426  pupils). 

Several   times,    German   underhand   dealings   in 
Venezuela  created  difficulties  for  us  with  this  un- 
stable Republic.     The  Germans  have  been  estab- 
lished there  since  the  time  of  Charles  V.,  who  granted 
to  an  Augsburg  house  working  privileges  in  that 
country.     Numerous  German  explorers,   of  whom 
was  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  have  brought  the 
country  to  the  notice  of  the  Fatherland.     The  most 
important  railway  line  is  German.     Many  industries : 
clockmaking,   pharmacy,   printing,  etc.,  as  well  as 
commerce  in  exports,  are  in  German  hands.     German 
officers  and  soldiers  have  often  fought  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Venezuelans.     The  German  language  is  taught 
in  the  principal  schools  of  the  country.    There  is 
therefore  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  a  native 
writer, V.  M.  Ovaller,  in  a  book  entitled  Ser  o  no  ser 
(To  be  or  not  to  be),  should  have  thought  it  right  to 
desire  the  victory  of  Germany,  in  spite  of  his  sym- 
pathies with  France  and  democratic  England.    The 
German  Press  has  drawn  people's  attention  to  this 
work.1 

In  Brazil,   German  scholastic  action  has  been 

particularly  active.    For  reasons  which  it  is  easy  to 

guess  the  Hamburg  branch  of  the  "  Society  for 

1  Among  others,  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  of  May  27,  1915. 

—  249  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

German  Expansion  in  Foreign  Countries  "x  has  taken 
under  its  special  care  the  schools  of  Rio  Granda  do 
Santa  Catarina,  Parana,  Lao  Paulo  (in  1913).  After 
having  endowed  them  with  £10,000,  it  has  again 
appealed  to  the  patriotism  of  its  adherents  for  an 
urgency  grant  of  £1,000,  setting  forth  that  the  French 
Alliance  could  expend,  in  Brazil,  £30,000  and  the 
Italian  Society  Dante  Allighiere  £10,000  annually. 
Recent  events  give  reason  to  hope  that,  after  the 
war,  German  activities  will  have  even  greater 
difficulty  in  withdrawing  Brazil  from  the  economic 
and  social  alliance  of  France,  Italy  and  England. 
The  state  of  war  between  Portugal  and  Germany 
has  had  a  strongly  repellent  effect  in  Brazil.  Once 
more  in  the  course  of  their  history  the  Portuguese 
of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds  are  extending  their 
hands  to  each  other  across  the  Atlantic.  At  one 
blow  Germany  has  made  for  herself  two  enemies  ; 
two  brothers,  it  is  true,  but  also  two  democracies, 
which  is  equally  important. 

The  Germans  had  not  forgotten  Brazil  in  their 
war  propaganda.  But  the  Brazilians  remained 
faithful  to  their  sympathies  towards  France. 

A  wave  of  obstinate  hatred  against  the  Germans 


1  The  port  of  Hamburg  grants  to  Brazilian  commerce 
the  greatest  facilities,  to  its  own  advantage,  be  it  under- 
stood. Without  these  facilities,  Germany  would  not  have 
been  able  to  requisition  from  the  Brazilian  bonded  ware- 
houses of  this  port,  in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  consider- 
able quantities  of  coffee. 

—  250  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

is  passing  over  Brazil.  On  principle  the  people  close 
their  ears  against  all  proof  of  good  sense  and  justice. 
Germans  are  refused  bread  and  water.  Their 
affirmations,  intended  less  to  justify  than  to  explain, 
are  all  contested.  "  We  (the  Brazilians)  practise 
an  insane  partiality.  Our  newspapers  collaborate 
in  the  mendacious  information,  the  equivocal 
communicated  items  of  news,  and  the  '  shrieking  ' 
comments  of  VAgence  Havas, — inventive  and 
always  vainglorious.  Whenever  this  Agency,  in 
default  of  news  of  victories,  repeated  the  refrain  of 
the  superiority  of  French  guns  over  the  German 
ones,  our  newspapers  embellished  the  account  with 
vainglorious  phrases  such  as  '  the  superiority  of  the 
Allies  is  prodigious ;  have  we  not  always  said  it  ?  ' 
etc.  In  the  places  where  meals  of  literary  news  are 
'  cooked '  for  all  the  papers,  groups  of  young 
scribes  prepare  savoury  strategic  dishes,  and  show 
how  little,  in  reality,  we  understand  military  sciences. 
Naturally  Germany  is  totally  demolished  in  this 
kitchen,  where  her  military,  commercial  and  indus- 
trial incapacity  is  always  proved.  France  and 
England  appear  without  blemish,  like  angels  :  they 
are  resplendent  in  prodigious  heroism,  they  are,  we 
are  most  intimately  convinced,  the  most  perfect 
chefs-d'ceuvre  of  creation." 

These  lines  are  a  literal  translation  of  an  article 

entitled  "  Razoes  seer  etas  "  by  Mr.  Bugalho.     The 

article  has  been  reproduced  in  German  in  No.  72  of 

the  San  Paulo  German  newspaper,  from  which  the 

—  251  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

Kolnische  Zeitung  has  spread  it  throughout 
Europe  (May  19, 1915,  No.  539).  There  it  occupies 
four  large  columns  of  the  supplement  !  It  is  impos- 
sible to  imagine  lucubrations  more  tactless  and  inept. 
''  Are  the  '  secret  reasons '  for  the  ineradicable 
sympathy  of  the  Brazilians  for  France  known  ? 
They  are  the  French  ladies  of  easy  virtue.  As  soon 
as  a  Brazilian  has  approached  a  Frenchwoman  he  is 
irremediably  acquired  by  France  :  he  is  made  a  fool 
of,  plucked,  ruined  by  these  diabolical  (or  angelic) 
creatures ;  never  mind,  he  cries :  '  Long  live 
France  !  '  There  is  the  great  secret  of  the  super- 
iority of  France  in  Brazil  over  the  good  German, 
serious,  industrious,  good  engineer,  excellent  com- 
mercial traveller,"  etc. 

As  propaganda,  it  is  iniquitous  and  clumsy.  The 
Brazilian  journalist  who  pocketed  the  large  fee  of 
German  money  to  thus  vilify  his  own  countrymen 
must  have  laughed  in  his  sleeve  at  the  simple 
Teutons  who  surely  took  him  seriously ;  none  of 
those  whom  he  accuses  of  paying  with  large  diamonds 
or  thousands  of  sacks  of  coffee  a  kiss  on  the  shoulder 
of  a  Parisian  prostitute,  will  have  taken  him  in  the 
same  way.  But  the  Germans  insist. 

The  Berliner  Tageblatt  (August  30,  1915) 
announced  to  us  the  creation  of  a  Liga  Braziliera 
pro  Ger mania.  This  League  has  for  object  to 
combat  the  mendacious  news  made  in  England.  A 
certain  Alfredo  Victor  Frontenella  has  launched  an 
appeal  in  the  Brazilian  paper  La  Tribuna.  "  Ger- 
—  252  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

many,"  he  says  in  this  manifesto,  "  is  known  and 
esteemed  in  really  cultured  circles,  but  nearly 
unknown  among  the  masses.  Most  Brazilians  were 
hypnotized  by  the  attractions  and  atmosphere  of 
Paris,  by  the  theatres  and  cafes,  by  the  ladies,  the 
refuse  of  Paris  "  (sic).  One  guesses  the  conclusion. 
A  propaganda  which  makes  use  of  such  means  is 
judged  by  itself.  Brazil  has  answered  it  as  should 
be  done.  The  German  propaganda  should  not, 
however,  be  neglected  on  that  account.  The  French 
language  is  more  diffused  in  Brazil  than  the  German 
tongue,  but  we  could  not  excuse  ourselves  from 
speaking,  in  their  own  language,  to  those  who  do  not 
read  French.  We  have  the  advantage  of  truth  in 
our  war  narratives.  Let  us  sow  them  broadcast  as, 
in  Brazil,  people  are  well-disposed  to  listen  to  us. 
Let  us  place  before  the  eyes  of  the  Brazilian  demo- 
cracy the  facts  which  peremptorily  prove  that 
Germany  unchained  the  war,  not  to  defend  her 
independence  and  her  existence,  as  the  "  Brazilian 
League  for  Germany  "  endeavours  to  prove,  but  to 
establish  by  a  stroke  of  brutal  force  her  dominion  of 
the  world.  We  do  not  dream  of  traducing  the 
Germans  by  recalling  to  the  Brazilians  the  nasty 
scandals  of  Berlin.  Our  methods  are  different. 
We  can  make  the  Brazilians  see,  if  that  were  neces- 
sary, that  France,  which  has  such  "  easy-going 
demi-monde "  possesses  also  an  incomparable 
moral  and  a  superb  army,  an  industry  and  a  science 
which  can  measure  themselves  with  those  of  Ger- 
—  253  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

many,  and  many  other  things  which  that  proud 

country  is  wrong  in  presenting  as  contemptible. 
*  *  * 

We  shall  say  nothing  here  of  German  scholastic 
action  in  the  United  States.  One  knows  what  hopes 
the  propaganda  of  Dernberg  and  his  University 
collaborators  had  founded  on  the  Germano- American 
populations,  and  to  what  serious  checks,  in  the 
present  and  for  the  future,  Germans  will  have  to 
resign  themselves. 

A  new  field  of  action  has  opened  before  the 
German  agency  in  the  case  of  the  "  recovered 
brethren  "  of  the  Baltic  Provinces  and  in  Russian 
Poland.  Warsaw  was  scarcely  occupied  by  the 
German  troops  before  professors  from  Berlin  hast- 
ened to  open  the  University  with  great  pomp,  and 
undertake  the  scholastic  organization  of  the  country. 
As  in  Belgium,  these  manifestations  will  have  no 
to-morrow.  They  are  far  from  being  pleasing  to  the 
people.  They  are  none  the  less  typical  of  the 
premeditation  and  actions  of  their  authors.  The 
war  has  ruined  the  position  of  the  German  traders 
and  colonists  in  the  Russian  Empire.  This  position 
was  considerable  from  every  point  of  view,  so  con- 
siderable that  many  "  German  brothers "  have 
preferred  a  momentary  retreat  towards  the  interior 
of  the  Slavonic  Empire  to  "  release  "  by  the  troops 
of  William  II.  It  would  seem  that  the  Germans  in 
the  Baltic  Provinces,1"  and  those  who  have  lived  for 
centuries  under  Russian  rule,  are  not  in  the  humour 
—  254  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

to  exchange  the  liberal  system  they  have  known  how 
to  extort  from  the  Petrograd  Government  for 
Prussian  militarism.  With  regard  to  the  Poles,  it  is 
certain  that,  as  a  whole,  they  would  not  readily 
submit  to  the  scholastic  proceedings  formerly  em- 
ployed against  their  brethren  in  Posnania. 


It  is  in  the  Balkans  at  this  moment  that  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  the  extension  of  Germanism  by 
means  of  schools.  Since  the  accession  of  William 
II,  German  policy  has  looked  more  and  more  closely 
towards  the  near  East :  a  line  through  the  Balkans 
as  far  as  Constantinople  and  from  thence  to  Bagdad 
would  lead  the  commerce  and  power  of  Germany  on 
the  very  flanks  of  her  English  rival  in  India  and  at 
Suez.  The  river-side  dwellers  of  the  European  stage 
as  far  as  Constantinople  were  "  worked  "  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Christians  and  Mahommedans  of  Asia. 

Serbia,  sworn  foe  of  Austro-Hungary,  and  entirely 
gained  by  Russia,  had  always  offered  small  chance  of 
success  to  the  German  propaganda. 

Roumania  was  more  receptive.  The  industrial 
development  of  the  country,  commerce,  mining  and 
agricultural  improvements  had  attracted  a  good 
number  of  Germans  and  Austrians,  especially  work- 
men and  foremen.  If  one  must  believe  the  German 
reports  published  since  the  war  in  the  daily  Press  * 

1  The  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  a  commercial  and  industrial 
medium,  has  particularly  occupied  itself  with  Roumania 

—  255  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

the  French  language  is  no  longer  spoken  save  in  high 
society ;  it  has  been  replaced  in  the  commercial 
world  by  German.  The  fact  is  that  there  exist, 
to-day,  German  schools  in  nearly  all  the  great 
Roumanian  centres.  They  are  founded  and  sup- 
ported by  religious  communities,  the  greater 
number  Protestant,  but  the  German  traders  and 
the  Empire  interest  themselves  in  their  welfare  with 
much  solicitude.  At  Bucharest  itself,  the  Protestant 
community  maintains  a  "  Real  Schule,"  a  commer- 
cial high  school  of  four  classes,  a  boys'  elementary 
school,  a  commercial  school  and  an  elementary 
school  for  girls,  boarding  schools  for  boys  and  girls, 
and  a  Kindergarten.  The  fifty-six  classes  contained, 
in  1913-14,  2,400  pupils.  The  teaching  was  given 
by  eighty-seven  masters  and  mistresses,  all  lay,  as 
were  also  the  managers,  and  of  whom  more  than 
half  were  subjects  of  the  German  Empire  ;  twenty- 
two  of  them  possessed  University  degrees.  Within 
the  last  ten  years,  the  number  of  scholars  has  doubled, 
that  of  the  professors  has  trebled.  The  leaving 
certificates  of  the  "  Real  Schule  "  and  of  the  com- 
mercial schools  are  of  equal  value  with  corresponding 
certificates  of  similar  schools  in  Germany,  Austria, 
and  in  Roumania  itself,  in  view  of  advanced  studies 
in  any  school,  university,  technical  school  or  commer- 
cial academy  in  the  three  countries.  This  recogni- 

(see  the  Revue  of  Political  Sciences,  December,  1915,  p. 
423  and  following).  An  article  on  German  schools  appeared 
in  it  on  February  20,  1915. 

—  256  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

tion  is  not  the  only  encouragement  granted  to  this 
scholastic  group  by  the  three  Governments.  The 
German  community  which  owns  it,  expends  upon  it 
£30,000  annually.  The  least  gathering  is  enhanced 
by  the  presence  of  German  and  Austrian  official 
representatives,  and  of  some  Roumanian  high 
authorities,  often  a  member  of  the  Royal  family. 
The  German  school  at  Galatz  comprises  a  boys' 
school  of  six  classes  and  a  girls'  school  of  ten  classes  ; 
it  is  attended  by  nearly  500  scholars.  The  German 
society  which  works  the  petroleum  region  of  Cam- 
pina,  has  founded  in  this  town  a  school  which,  in  a 
short  time,  has  placed  itself,  in  regard  to  its  import- 
ance, next  to  that  of  Galatz.  Flourishing  German 
schools  exist  at  Craiova,  Constant za  and  Braila. 
Elsewhere,  at  Jassy,  at  Ploesci,  at  Pitesci,  pastors 
have  founded  small  schools  which  are  managed  by 
themselves.  In  the  same  way  the  Catholic  schools 
under  the  Archbishop  of  Bucharest  are  directed  by 
ecclesiastics  and  the  Bishop  of  Jassy.  The  German 
tongue  is  not  in  all  these  schools  the  teaching 
language,  but  it  holds  the  foremost  place  in  them  all. 
This  is  what  entitles  them  to  partake  of  the  sub- 
sidies voted  by  the  German  Empire.  No  doubt  it  is 
thought  insufficiently  profitable  for  Germanism  to 
develop  the  miserable  and  very  intermittent  schools 
of  the  German  colonists  who  came  from  Russia  into 
the  Dobrudsha  (then  Turkish)  in  the  time  of  Cathar- 
ine II  and  Alexander  I.  There  are,  however,  in  these 
schools  only  the  children  of  German  parents,  who, 
—  257  —  R 


THE  GERMAN   SCHOOL 

through  many  tribulations,  have  preserved  intact 
their  language  and  their  original  personality. 

Pupils  of  Roumanian  nationality  are  fairly 
numerous  in  the  German  schools  in  the  kingdom. 
The  German  reports  underline  with  satisfaction  that 
among  their  number  there  are  sons  of  ministers, 
superior  officers,  etc.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  young 
Roumanians  only  attend  to  learn  the  German 
language.  Attendance  at  a  Roumanian  State  school 
alone  giving  an  entrance  to  the  professions,  they  do 
not  follow  the  entire  curriculum  of  the  foreign 
school.  On  the  other  side,  the  contingent  of  Jewish 
scholars  is  relatively  high.  The  reason  is  not,  as  the 
Germans  would  wish  it  to  be  thought,  difficulties, 
for  Jews,  of  entrance  into  the  Roumanian  schools, 
but  the  notable  advantages  that  Jewish  traders  have 
found  until  now,  and  hope  to  find  in  the  future,  in 
Austro-Hungary  and  Germany. 

The  Roumanian  Administration  has  shown  a  great 
toleration  towards  the  scholastic  enterprises  of  the 
Germans.  Itself  possessing  complete  and  well- 
managed  educational  organization  and  legislation, 
it  reserves  for  itself,  naturally,  the  control  of  foreign 
private  schools.  Doubtless  the  war  will  alter  this 
state  of  affairs.  The  German  propaganda  has 
profoundly  disturbed  the  Latin  kingdom.  One 
perceives  that,  on  the  east  of  the  Rhine,  notorious 
mistakes  have  been  made.  If  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  a  newspaper  often  inspired  by  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  empire,  has  judged  this 

-258- 


AS   A  WAR  NURSERY 

moment  opportune  to  recall  the  German  scholastic 
work  in  Roumania,  and  to  express  the  hope  of  "  all 
men  having  at  heart  the  pacific  good  understanding 
of  nations  on  the  basis  of  general  efforts  towards 
civilization  "  that  it  will  thus  continue  in  the  future, 
what  more  characteristic  indication  can  there  be  of 
the  German  fear  of  having  compromised  every- 
thing ! 

Are  the  German  hopes  any  more  assured  in  the 
case  of  their  two  new  Allies,  the  Bulgars  and  the 
Turks  ? 

The  attentions  of  Germany  towards  Bulgaria  are 
of  somewhat  recent  date.  The  innumerable  articles 
published  since  the  war  by  the  German  Press  to 
decide  Bulgaria  to  array  itself  on  the  side  of  the 
Central  Powers  are  all  attuned  to  the  same  leit- 
motiv :  Germany,  and  particularly  her  Emperor, 
are  convinced  that  alone  among  the  people  of  the 
Balkans  the  valiant  and  hard-working  Bulgarian 
nation  is  capable  of  establishing,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  her  eminent  prince,  order  and  progress  in  the 
peninsula  :  the  injustice  of  the  Treaty  of  Bucha- 
rest (1913),  the  work  of  the  Entente  Powers,  has 
proved  to  Bulgaria  that  there  was  no  other  way  of 
assuring  for  itself  the  economic  and  political  supre- 
macy in  the  Balkans  save  by  an  Austro-German 
alliance. 

In  truth,  the  policy  of  Berlin  is  to  use  Bulgaria  as 
prison-warder  so  as  to  keep  the  Slavs  away  from 
"  the  route  to  Bagdad  via  Constantinople," 
—  259  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

In  spite  of  the  acknowledged  Germanophilism  of 
the  Prime  Minister  Radoslavoc,  and  the  officers  and 
students  whom  the  German  Government  has  known 
how  to  attract,  there  is  in  Bulgaria  no  important 
German  focus.  In  1913  there  were  only  two  German 
schools  in  the  whole  country.  One  alone,  that  in 
Sofia,  prospered,  thanks  to  the  active  patronage  of 
the  German  Minister  and  Consul,  and  especially 
thanks  to  the  liberality  of  the  Sofia  representative 
of  the  Krupp  firm.  The  other,  at  Philippoli,  has 
never  been  able  to  expand,  in  spite  of  the  "  very 
laudable  "  subsidy  of  the  Berlin  Government.1  It 
was  at  one  time  feared  it  would  have  to  be  closed. 
"  There  are  no  rich  or  influential  Germans  at  Philip- 
poli," wrote,  in  1913,  Dr.  Roloff  in  the  Leipziger 
Neueste  Nachnchten :  the  country  is  too  poor 
to  send  its  children  to  a  school  where  they  would  have 
to  pay  fees.  On  the  other  hand  the  French  schools, 
the  Boys'  College  and  the  High  School  for  Girls,  are 
richly  subsidized,  admirably  equipped,  efficaciously 
protected  by  a  Consul  who  is  at  Philippoli  only  for 
that  purpose,  for  there  is,  in  the  town,  neither  a 
French  colony  nor  commerce.  The  same  is  the  case 
with  other  French  schools  founded  and  directed  by 
Catholic  ecclesiastics,  both  in  the  capital  and  in 
several  important  centres  in  the  country. 

There  was  a  commotion  in  the  German  Press  when 
the  Echo  de  Paris  suggested  that  France  should 
profit  by  an  eventual  revision  of  the  Treaty  of 

1  2,000  marks  in  1914,  Queen  Eleanor  gave  200  marks, 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

Bucharest  to  secure  to  herself  the  "  protection  "  of 
the  Bulgarian  Catholics.  The  Kdlnische  Zeitung, 
the  most  important  among  the  Catholic  papers  of 
Germany,  repeated  in  its  entirety  the  report  read 
by  Professor  Bezensek,  of  Sofia,  at  the  first  Congress 
of  Christian  Education,  which  met  at  Vienna  in  1912, 
at  the  same  time  as  the  Eucharistic  Congress.  This 
report  was  to  prove  how  greatly  prosperous  were  the 
non-provided  schools  directed  by  the  French,  and 
also  that  in  those  same  schools  instruction  in  the 
German  tongue,  given  by  Germans,  played  a  very 
important  part.  Mr.  Bezensek  left  the  Germans 
to  draw  their  own  conclusions.  In  view  of  the 
increasing  importance  of  Catholicism  in  Bulgaria, 
and  the  preference  given  by  the  Government  to  young 
men  highly  educated  in  foreign  establishments,  it 
was  the  duty  of  Catholics  and  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  take  in  hand  themselves  the  spread  of 
DeutsMum  in  the  kingdom  of  the  new  ally. 

Will  the  destiny  of  Bulgaria  be  such  as  Ferdinand 
of  Coburg  dreams  of  ?  It  is  less  and  less  likely  that 
it  will  be  accomplished  according  to  the  desires  of 
the  Germanic  Powers.  So  much  the  more  reason  for 
us  to  strengthen  our  scholastic  effort,  so  as  to  guard 
ourselves  against  political  surprises  on  the  part  of 
Bulgaria,  as  dangerous  as  that  of  1915. 

At  the  beginning  of  last  year,  a  Councillor  of  the 

German  Government,   Dr.   Schmidt,   inspector    of 

German  schools  in  foreign  lands,  inaugurated  his 

work  as  re-organizer  of  the  Ottoman  school  system 

—  261  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

at  Constantinople.  Until  just  before  the  war,  it  was 
the  French  model  which  prevailed.  There  were 
more  than  500  French  schools  in  the  Turkish  empire, 
taught  by  French  masters  or  directed  by  Frenchmen, 
according  to  the  methods  and  with  the  help  of 
French  books,  in  the  language  and  the  spirit  of 
France.  To-day  it  is  Germany  who  dominates. 
She  hastens  to  take  possession  of  the  country,  as  if 
she  feared  her  inability  to  stay  there.  The  "  Ger- 
mano-Turkish  Association  "  founded  last  year  at 
Constantinople  under  the  aegis  of  the  German 
Embassy,  subsidizes  schools,1  buys  buildings  and 
land,2  establishes  German  boarding-schools  and 
German  lectures.3  The  said  Association  has  in- 
scribed propaganda  through  the  school  at  the  head 
of  its  programme.  Already  the  newspapers  vaunt 
the  surprising  results  acquired.4  The  establishments, 
managed  for  the  most  part  by  religious  bodies  or 
German  ecclesiastics,  have  seen  the  number  of  their 
pupils  trebled.  In  many  cases  it  has  been  impossible 
to  satisfy  all  the  requests  for  admission. 

The  High  School  at  Pera,  founded  by  the  Ger- 
mano-Swiss  Scholastic  Corporation,  numbered  in 
1912-13  600  pupils ;  at  the  beginning  of  1915  it 

1  At  Bagdad  and  Jerusalem. 

2  At  Haidai  Pasha. 

3  At  Nichantach,  Broussa,  Konia. 

4  Heading,  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung  of  June  30,   1915. 
The  Berliner  Tageblatt,  another  organ  of  German  commerce, 
and  a  strong  advocate  of   the    route  Hamburg-Constan- 
tinople-Bagdad, of  July  i,  1915. 

—  262 — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

had  1,000.  The  leaving  certificates  of  this  school 
admit  to  study  at  the  Universities  in  Germany. 
Thus  young  Ottomans  are  attracted  to  advanced 

studies  and  the  German  higher  technical  schools. 
*  *  * 

It  should  be  carefully  noted  that  already  the  Ger- 
man Government  has  assigned  to  Constantinople  a 
complete  phalanx  of  professors  to  occupy  the  Chairs 
of  advanced  studies.  The  Germans  are  organizing 
themselves.  While,  for  example,  the  primary  school 
at  Jerusalem  (with  six  classes)  and  the  "  Real 
Schule  "  (founded  in  1905,  and  qualifying  for  a 
certificate  the  volunteer  of  one  year's  standing)  are  a 
collective  foundation  of  the  German  colony,  the 
Protestant  Community  and  that  of  the  Templars. 
The  "  Real  Schule  "  at  Bagdad,  founded  in  1909,  is 
an  establishment  of  the  only  German  scholastic 
society  in  the  place.  A  similar  society  created  a 
"  Real  Schule  "  at  Aleppo  in  1911. 

In  three  years  the  number  of  pupils  has  trebled. 
In  1913,  there  were  107  Turks  and  Persians  among 
128  scholars.  The  correspondent  of  the  Berliner 
Tageblatt,  who  visited  this  school  in  June,  1915, 
informs  us  that  this  school  combines  children  of 
eight  years  old  and  young  men  of  twenty-three. 
These  pupils  learn  German.  But  of  what  use  will 
this  tongue  be  to  them  ?  There  is  no  important 
German  colony  in  that  region.  France  has  strongly 
influenced  Syria,  by  subsidizing  countless  schools. 
Commerce  is  carried  on  in  French.  In  the  offices  of 
—  263  — 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

the  important  commercial  houses,  and  even  at  the 
head-quarters  of  the  German  Bagdad  railway,  corre- 
spondence is  carried  on  in  French.  The  same  writer 
has  seen,  at  Aleppo,  a  fair-haired  boy  translating 
Arabic  under  the  superintendence  of  a  tonsured 
young  master  :  the  child  was  the  son  of  the  German 
Consul  and  the  master  a  French  ecclesiastic.  So  the 
visitor  asked  himself  how  German  effort  will  succeed 
in  overcoming  the  existent  difficult  conditions.  He 
counts  upon  the  disappearance  of  French  influence 
and  speech.  Is  he  sure  the  German  will  prevent  the 
Turk  or  the  Arab  from  becoming  predominant  ? 
The  mixture  of  races,  Turks,  Arabs,  Jews,  Armeni- 
ans, Circassians,  etc.,  that  one  meets  in  the  schools 
there,  terrify  him.  He  has  written  his  article 
precisely  to  interest  German  patriotism  and  finance 
in  this  difficult  work.1  The  war,  we  truly  hope, 
will  render  vain  his  calculations  and  over-hasty 
efforts.  Germany  will  have  severe  wounds  to  dress 
before  it  can  listen  to  appeals  to  its  liberality  for  far- 
away "  ideals." 

*  *  * 

Germany  has  a  vital  interest  in  retaking  and 
improving  her  position  in  the  East  and  in  South 

1  The  German  society  "  Durer  "  (Deutscher  Diirerbund) 
has  launched  in  the  newspapers  an  appeal  for  German 
books  :  this  Society  carries  on  propaganda  through  art, 
music,  exhibitions,  and  popular  lectures.  "  It  requires 
a  large  and  varied  library  !  "  (Frankfurter  Zeitung,  March 
6,  1916). 

—  264  — 


AS  A  WAR  NURSERY 

• 

America,  as  soon  as  peace  is  declared.  She  will,  for 
this  purpose,  make  the  effort  of  which  the  war  will 
have  shown  the  necessity.  She  will  avoid,  at  any 
rate  in  the  beginning,  the  mistakes  in  tact  committed 
in  the  past.  She  will  also  avoid  the  procedure 
which  Dernberg  formerly  praised,  that  is  to  say,  the 
use  of  force  as  the  unique  means  of  success  in  the 
countries  and  with  the  nations  which  do  not  as  yet 
participate  in  the  benefit  of  "  Kultur  "  and  German 
organization. 

The  authority  of  the  Allies,  on  the  contrary,  will 
emerge  from  this  war  singularly  enhanced.  Even 
now  they  are  preparing  to  consolidate  their  ancient 
ties,  and  to  effect  new  ones  with  the  nations  among 
which  German  rivalry  has  never  ceased  to  do  them 
an  ill  turn. 

The  role  of  the  institutions  founded  by  clear- 
sighted men  in  England,  France,  and  Italy  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  commerce  and  influence  of  their 
countries  by  the  help  of  an  intellectual  and  moral 
penetration,  if  their  action  is  well  sustained,  will  be 
this  time  decisive.  Doubtless,  these  institutions 
will  require  all  the  moral  and  methodical  support  of 
their  Governments  ;  they  will  equally  demand  from 
their  respective  Parliaments  important  material 
help.  But  it  belongs  especially  to  those  who  will 
profit  from  the  good  will  conquered  or  re-conquered, 
to  the  ship-owners,  bankers,  merchants  and  traders, 
to  obtain  for  private  initiative  the  appropriate  means 
for  the  development  of  their  activities.  A  staff 
-265- 


THE  GERMAN  SCHOOL 

well-chosen  and  fully  prepared  for  its  particular  and 
delicate  task  will  accomplish  the  remainder.  The 
wider,  freer,  and  more  intelligent,  the  action  of  the 
"  pioneers  "  the  better  it  will  be  accepted,  and  the 

more  fruitful  will  it  be. 

***** 

Since  writing  the  above,  facts  have  proved  the 
truth  of  the  forecasts  contained  in  this  volume. 

One  by  one  the  nations  have  closed  their  doors  on 
Germany,  and  she  finds  that  the  efforts  she  expended 
on  laborious  propaganda  have  proved  of  no 
avail. 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  Germany  has 
realized  her  mistakes  and  is  devising  means  to 
prevent  their  repetition. 

One  of  these  is — as  has  already  been  mentioned  l — 
the  founding  of  a  special  university  (Auslands- 
hochschule)  for  the  training  of  the  German  agents — • 
professors,  engineers,  consuls  and  missionaries — to 
be  sent  to  foreign  countries. 

This  scheme  has  already  begun  to  be  realized  in 
Prussia — though  different  in  form  to  the  Imperial 
Ideal  of  its  original  promoters. 

A  long  report  on  this  subject  was  laid  on  the  table 
of  the  Prussian  House  in  January,  1917) 2  in  order 
to  justify  the  demands  for  additional  grants  in  aid 
of  the  development  of  the  "  study  of  foreign  coun- 
tries "  made  by  the  Prussian  Minister  of  Education. 

1  See  above,  p.   243. 

2  Kolnische  Zeitung,  January  31,  1917.     No.   104. 

-  —  266  — 


AS   A   WAR  NURSERY 

The  idea  of  an  Imperial  Institution  has  been  aban- 
doned, as  being  contrary  to  the  Constitution,  which 
leaves  each  State  free  to  determine  its  own  Educa- 
tional Policy. 

The  present  plan  does  not  aim  solely  at  the 
preparation  of  the  future  masters  of  the  German 
schools  in  foreign  countries  for  their  propagandist 
work  or  merely  at  the  education  of  consuls  or  other 
agents  for  the  duties  they  will  later  be  called  upon 
to  perform,  but  is  organized  with  the  view  that 
"the  whole  German  nation  should  be  trained  in  World 
Politics." 

Every  studious  German — whether  he  is  likely  to 
serve  the  cause  of  the  Fatherland  abroad  or  to  remain 
at  home  in  the  metropolis — should  be  permeated 
with  the  greatness  of  the  German  world  interests. 

The  discretion  of  the  Prussian  Government  not 
to  force  an  Imperial  Institution  on  the  Federal 
States — out  of  "  respect  for  the  Constitution  " — is 
amazing.  The  avowal  which  masks  this  restraint 
is  even  more  so.  "  The  war  has  shown,  even  to 
those  who  did  not  realize  it,  how  great  was  our 
ignorance  of  Foreign  Thought  and  how  greatly 
we  need  to  judge  the  present  according  to  the 
principles  of  Political  Science.  Our  Field  of  Action 
is  the  World.  .  .  ." 

Divested  of  its  administrative  pathos  this  passage 

signifies  that  the  Germans  realize — thanks  to  the 

war — their  failure  as  regards  International  Politics 

and  the  futility  of  attempting  to  treat  International 

—  267  — 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

Questions  according  to  the  narrow  laws  of  their 
own  National  Policy. 

The  report  recommends — not  a  Central  Institution 
but  rather  the  decentralization  of  this  instruction. 
All  the  universities  will  take  an  active  part  in 
achieving  the  aim  of  general  culture  in  matters 
appertaining  to  the  knowledge  of  Foreign  Countries. 
Thus  Koenigsberg  and  Breslau  will  deal  with 
questions  relating  to  the  Slavonic  countries  :  Bonn 
will  give  the  preference  to  France  and  Holland,  etc. 
All  the  Faculties,  those  of  Philosophy  as  well  as 
Law,  will  be  called  upon  to  assist  in  this  work. 
The  special  schools  of  Oriental  Studies — such  as 
the  Colonial  Institute  at  Hambourg  and  the  schools 
at  the  various  Universities — will  widen  their  sphere, 
but  all  educational  institutions  will  endeavour  to 
enlarge  the  scope  of  their  instruction  so  that  it  may 
embrace,  not  only  utilitarian  subjects  necessary 
to  a  professor,  missionary,  engineer  or  merchant, 
but  the  wider  studies  dealing  with  general  questions 
affecting  foreign  countries. 

The  Prussian  reserve  is  in  accordance  with  her 
policy.  The  idea  of  a  World  Empire  must  be 
created  in  the  same  way  as  the  ideal  of  a  National 
Empire  has  been  formed.  The  best  agents  for  this 
purpose  are  the  universities,  which  the  Government 
at  Berlin— thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  professors 
at  the  capital — have,  more  or  less,  under  its  control. 
An  Imperial  Institute,  for  which  the  political  parties 
in  the  Reichstag  would,  or  would  not,  vote  grants 
—  268  — 


AS  A   WAR  NURSERY 

in  aid,  as  the  case  might  be,  would  be  entirely 
removed  from  its  influence.  There  is  not,  therefore, 
to  be  an  '  'A  uslandshochschule,"  but  Prussia  by  setting 
the  example  to  the  universities  in  the  other  States 
hope  to  interest  the  princes  of  commerce,  industry 
and  finance  in  the  movement. 

Berlin  and  Minister  alone  will  create  new  chairs. 
At  Berlin  the  new  professor  will  be  attached  to  the 
School  of  Oriental  Studies  and  will  complete  the 
philological  instruction  by  a  practical  course  on  the 
Eastern  World.  Berlin  is  also  to  have  a  reader  in 
Bulgarian.  At  Miinster  a  course  of  the  history  of 
Christianity  in  the  East  will  be  added  to  the  Faculty 
of  Theology.  As  "  the  study  of  the  Romance 
languages  has  always  been  its  specialty,"  a  reader 
in  Spanish  is  to  be  attached  to  the  staff  at  the 
Bonn  University. 

Thus  does  Prussia  intend  to  solve  the  problem  of 
an  educational  organization  destined  to  develop 
in  the  minds  of  all  Germans  a  more  exact  and 
complete  understanding  of  foreign  countries  and 
"  Foreign  Thought." 

The  Germans  have  certainly  made  progress  in 
theory,  but  there  are  certain  things  which  cannot 
be  taught  in  the  lecture  room.  The  lamentable 
failure  of  her  propaganda  in  the  United  States 
shows  how  far  the  German  mind  is  from  under- 
standing the  soul  of  a  foreign  nation. 

Neither  the  professional  diplomat,  Bernstorff,  nor 
Dennburg,  the  man  of  business,  has  been  able  to 
—  269  — 


THE   GERMAN   SCHOOL 

achieve  his  goal,  in  spite  of  his  personal  experience 
and  the  unlimited  means  placed  at  his  disposal. 
Each  failed  because  he  was  unable  to  free  himself 
from  Prussian  methods  and  German  mentality. 
Similarly,  abroad,  the  diplomatic  agents  and  the 
"  pioneers  "  of  Germany  have  met  with  the  same 
checks  for  the  same  reasons. 

The  nations,  even  those  which  conserve  strict 
neutrality,  are  manifesting  to-day,  by  means  of  a 
war  for  liberty,  their  displeasure.  Germany  has 
understood.  She  is,  therefore,  preparing  to  undergo 
an  apprenticeship  in  World  Politics.  She  still 
declares  that  "  the  World  is  her  Field  of  Action/' 
Let  us  see  to  it  that  we  are  not  evicted  ! 


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—   270    — 


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